Every cloud has a silver lining (and a scarlet one)

“Bad to the bone!” the twins drawled at the same time, nodding to their outfits in approval.

Wanda wore yellow tweed mini skirt and jacket set; the material was woven with sequins and metallic threads that shimmered even in the dim light of the corridor. She matched it with simple white crop top, slouch socks and Nike sneakers. Her usually wavy hair was now straight and smooth, falling down to her waist. A touch of black eye liner together with layers of mascara brought up the greenness of her irises to a new level.

Peter was dressed in immaculate black T-Shirt and jeans, his bomber jacket had satin silver finish, glinting when the light touched it, several patches added coolness to it too. Silver Air Force sneakers finished the look. And the goggles, of course.

“Where is everyone?” the girl whispered.

Her brother nodded up ahead the staircase. “Come.”

Wanda cocked her head not unamused as she spotted a spark of mischief in the speedster’s dark eyes.

He is definitely up to something, shot through her head.

But there wasn’t time to ask because Peter took her hand and, together, they slinked down the corridor, then – the stairs. He looked around the corner, checking if anyone (namely Charles or Erik) was wandering somewhere around.

“All clear,” the young man assured his sister.

They ran up soundlessly to the main entrance, silver-haired Maximoff opened the door for the girl, letting her out first, then snicked out, too.

This night was perfect for a secret trip to New York. A thousand stars twinkled in the clear sky, lighting the road out of the school. Crickets were already chattering, hiding in tall grass. Still, there were no mutants.

“I thought they are waiting for us outside,” Wanda said to her brother in a hushed tone, perplexed.

They descended the stairs and walked to the east wing.

Peter suddenly stopped and tilted his head up. “They are. Sorta.”

The girl followed her brother’s gaze. Her brows went up as she saw Ororo tossing the rope out of her window and climbing it down.

The rope turned out to be two sheets tied together. Munroe span it like a lasso and threw it back to her room.

A happy grin flourished on her face when she turned to the twins. “Hi!”

Maximoff, with her eyes round in astonishment, took a look at the girl. She rocked over-the-knee boots, leather shorts and gray top, multicolored beaded necklaces were arranged in layers on her chest. But what truly caught the eye was Ororo’s new hair color – violet. Bold statement even in the darkness of the night.

Peter gave her a high five. “Looking fantabulous.”

The compliment made her smile even broader, lighting up her features.

Another window opened and Jean looked down at her friends.

“I should have put on jeans,” she scolded herself as she was barely able to lift her leg and step over the window frame in her fringed suede miniskirt.

Thank God there are so many ledges, she thought, clinging to the stone decorations on the wall. Though I should give myself credit for that.

Silver-haired Maximoff helped Grey down to the ground and she gave him a nod of her thanks, smoothing down her skirt.

Next was Kurt. Without hesitation, the young man simply jumped out of his room, landing skillfully right on his feet.

“’N Abend, Freunde*,” he muttered, waving his hand.

The mutants stared at him, marveling at his cat-like skills.

Ororo recovered first. “Where is Scott? We are gonna be late.”

“Don’t tell me he is still preening,” Wanda said to Jean, drawing an amused snort out of her.

“Psst,” Summers signaled for his friends for the tenth time.

Unfortunately for the young man he was the only one in their group to have a room on the third floor. He didn’t have a fear of heights but he did have some common sense and the idea of crawling down the wall in the night didn’t seem like a good one. Like at all.

“Psst!” he tried again. “You, assholes!”

“Oh, oh, look!” Wagner exclaimed though still in a hushed voice, pointing to Scott.

The mutants glanced up all at once with the look that said “Here he is! Finally!”

“Are you sure someone can’t just help me down?” he hissed.

Wanda leaned to her brother. “Why the hell they all climb out of their windows? Why just…don’t use the door?”

Peter grinned deviously. “I might have convinced them that Prof can detect us using our powers so we should do it the old-fashioned way. Especially because all the doors are locked for the night. Students’ safety and all.”

The girl clasped her mouth with her hand, laughing soundlessly at their naïve friends. How could it happen that they still didn’t get used to her twin’s jokes?

“You are a bloody genius,” she praised him.

Silver-haired Maximoff shrugged. “I gave them a chance to be simple teenagers. It’s a shame to be so obedient at their age.”

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” Summers insisted.

“Get down already, Rapunzel,” Wanda mocked and everyone (beside Scott, of course) tittered.

The young man rolled his eyes albeit no one could see that and with a sigh, stepped onto the ledge. His palms became sweaty as his heart hammered in the chest.

Don’t be a chicken, he said to himself. You have been at the military base with armed men and didn’t die in Cairo. You can sneak out of a freaking school.

All of a sudden someone else’s window creaked. The mutants exchanged glances; their eyes wide from fear of being exposed. They scattered away like fish in the aquarium, hiding in their surroundings.

When Scott turned his head, he found Lehnsherr staring at him with neon question marks in his eyes. Right in that moment his foot slipped from the ledge and the young man experienced one second of unbelievable free fall before his ass met totally believable ground.

It was a miracle that nearby trees and bushes didn’t oohed because Summers’ friends behind them twisted their faces in “Shit! That was harsh!”.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Erik asked sprawled-out-like-a-star Scott.

“Sneaking into Jean’s room,” the young man blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

Grey resisted the urge to slap her forehead.

Idiot, the Master of Magnetism thought, looking heavenward.

“Next time use the door,” he advised and transferred Summers back to his room with his magnetic powers.

Thanks, dad, Peter thought ruefully. Now I have to go after this dumbass.

Hope he has got brain enough not to try climb out of that window again, Wanda prayed.

Can’t believe they are Magneto’s kids, Kurt mused, looking at the Maximoffs.

Now we’ll be late for sure, shot through Ororo’s mind.

Poor Scott, Jean worried.

Shit, Scott swore to himself, rubbing his low back.

“I’ll go after him,” the speedster mouthed.

Wanda scrunched up her face and moved her lips in a soundless “What?”.

Peter rolled his eyes, articulating the words more dramatically this time, “I. Will. Go. After. Him.”

His sister spread her arms slightly, and hissed, “I can’t fucking see what you’re lip-syncing in the dark!”

“I can,” Wagner whispered.

Maximoff jumped in her place, startled. She glanced up and saw Kurt sitting in the crown of the same tree she was hiding behind.

“Jesus Christ,” the girl mumbled, clutching at her chest.

“Don’t take the name of the Lord in vain,” the teleport chided her.

For Heaven’s sake, she thought and shook her head.

Wanda peered into the nearest bush, guessing Munroe’s hidden figure, then flicked her eyes to Jean, who was squatting down behind a large planter box with azaleas. She jerked her head back in a signal for them to get out of here.

The mutants obeyed and ran in single file, one at a time, to where Peter parked the car.

Meanwhile, the speedster had already walked through the school’s main entrance. He slinked all the way up to Scott’s room and without knocking, slipped inside.

“Alive?” Maximoff taunted.

The young man’s lips parted in surprise. “How did you get in here?”

“Half-assed teenagers,” Peter mumbled and pushed Summers out of his room.

They were already on the first floor when the speedster halted and Scott almost tripped over him.

“What is it?” he muttered, looking over Maximoff’s shoulder.

Someone was strolling from the library right towards them, but there was no opportunity to back down and stay unnoticed. There was no way to stay unnoticed at all, actually.

Damn it, Peter swore to himself.

He wasn’t going to retreat when they almost made it with the rest of the group waiting in the car by now, so his brain speeded up, looking for the ways out. Maximoff shoved Scott back, gesturing for him to press into the wall.

At just the right time because a woman came around the corner. Summers immediately recognized Miss Russell, the physics teacher to whom he was immensely grateful for giving him a hundred chances to pass the final test. The woman stopped just where the young men were clinging to the wooden panels and they held their breaths, the only thing hiding them were the shadows. She rubbed her eyes and peered into the window like somnambule, blinking too slowly for Peter’s liking.

Come on! he got indignant. What haven’t you seen out there?  

Summers was watching the teacher so intensively he had to shut his eyes at one point in fear that he would accidentally fire beams at her.

Miss Russell stretched her back muscles, then ducked her head clearly tired, and walked past the mutants, yawning. Silver-haired Maximoff fought the desire to yawn too, but as he failed a tear glistened in the corner of his eye.

Once the woman vanished in the corridor on the second floor, the speedster grabbed Scott’s shoulder and both of them sprinted to the front door, breaking free. They ran down the road, gravel crunching under their feet, then crossed a couple of green clearings and finally spotted a car in the distance.

Wanda started the engine of her mom’s Ford but decided against turning on the headlights, staying under the cover of the night. She tapped impatiently on the steering wheel with her long nails until she recognized two approaching figures.

Peter got used to riding shotgun so when he yanked the door open and saw Kurt on his place, he was bemused for a second.

“Move, move, move!” he hastened the teleport and jumped into the car, Scott meanwhile took a back seat.

Ororo half expected for Maximoff to yell “Drive!” because it all reminded her of a scene from a heist movie but Wanda didn’t wait for anyone to tell her what to do as she drove off slowly and speeded up only when they left Xavier’s property.

The mutants were giggling and buzzing from the adrenalin coursing through their veins and anticipation of what the trip held. Jean fussed about Scott’s “little flight” but the young man kept it cool (though Peter listened to him whining about his hurt tailbone just several minutes ago) while Munroe watched them with a broad smile. Kurt had the worst seat in the car: sandwiched between Wanda and Peter, he struggled to find a place for his feet thanks to the high transmission tunnel and his tail which was already numb, pressed into his own back. Somehow it didn’t ruin anything for him.

Even the twins caught the rebellious mood though they were the pros of never-ending mischief, especially in their teen years. Since they could remember themselves, brother and sister were inseparable, but throughout the last three years Wanda was rarely at home, coming only for Christmas, Easter or the summer holidays. The Maximoffs chatted on the phone almost every day, still Peter felt his sister’s absence in his life as did Wanda regardless of how busy Oxford made her. Both of them missed each other and missed their escapades so this trip was a way to make up for lost time.

The girl exchanged glances with her brother before her vision closed in on the road in front of her and she pushed the pedal to the floor, all the passengers felt the growing speed that got them sucked into their plush seats. No longer able to notice cafes or parks on the sides of the highway as everything turned into a blur, Ororo, Jean and Scott double checked if they put on their seat belts. The worm summer air was blowing into their faces, deafening them along with the purring engine.  

We won’t be late, shot through Kurt’s mind. We are going to be dead!

He cast a glance at Peter but the young man sprawled on his place, his arm resting on the open window, and chewed gum not at all bothered.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” the teleport asked Wanda, gripping the edges of the seat when the tires screeched and the car successfully entered another curve.

The girl grinned a bit euphoric from the high speed. “No worries, buddy. I’ll hightail you to New York safe and sound.”

She turned on the radio and Debbie Harry’s voice wrapped them, insisting to call her, call her any, anytime and as Maximoff drove them smoothly and confidently to the Big Apple, her friends relaxed and began to sing along with the Blondie’s lead vocalist. The rest of the way, the gang bawled joyfully lyrics of every song they heard, sometimes making up the words or playing imaginary musical instruments. Peter had found his Nikon F3 in the glove department and captured the moment.

When they finally arrived, Wanda parked Ms. Maximoff’s Ford on the first spot that appeared to be unoccupied and the mutants set off to explore the city, trying to memorize the street they left the car. They gaped at flashing lights and countless advertisements, harried past piles of garbage and a bum who asked Jean for a cigarette, winced at honking taxies and yelped when a huge rat jumped out of nowhere. All in all, they were drinking in the chaotic boisterous atmosphere of New York City. 

As they walked down the streets, series of photos followed – Ororo holding the peak of the Chrysler Building as if it were a bell, Peter lifting half-laughing half-screaming Wanda, Broadway’s signboard behind them, Jean and Scott crossing the street holding hands, Kurt running away from KFC’s leafleter distributer who was dressed in a chicken costume, all of them standing in the middle of Times Square with broad smiles on their faces.

Despite the fact that life in the Big Apple went on as usual, the consequences of recent events were visible to the naked eye: many skyscrapers were half or entirely destroyed, some blocks were power downed, people stared at Kurt not even trying to hide their curiosity, and in some cases even disgust, they peered at Scott’s glasses, assessed Ororo’s bold image and Peter’s silver hair and goggles, wondering why Wanda and Jean, seemingly ordinary girls, were walking with these freaks. But New York has always been a place for the most extraordinary people to show themselves, and no one kept their eyes on the mutants for too long, hurrying about their business. There were also those who complimented Munroe’s beaded necklaces and asked Wagner if his blue strands were real or “the baddest” hair extensions, smoothing out negative experiences.

When they reached out Central Park it became clear that there was no way in anymore, the ground was lost beneath the hordes of people, youngsters and adults who couldn’t miss the opportunity to chase free of charge fun.

“Well, at least we saw the city,” Summers tried to be cheerful and received a nod of approval from Ororo.

Grey, also known as the biggest Elton John fun, sighed, making Wanda press her lips.

Peter climbed the fence, trying to see at least an inch of free space to squeeze in. He gestured for Kurt to take a look, too.

“What do you think?” the speedster asked, pointing at the suspiciously empty place under two huge trees. “Can you teleport us there?”

Wagner’s tail swished as he surveyed the offered destination.

“You know, I’m not very good at transporting so many people at once,” he said and looked at silver-haired Maximoff hesitantly.

“Minor inconvenience.” The young man waved it off and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re yet not very good at it but a bit of practice will change that for sure. Regard it as a challenge to yourself, imagine how cool it’ll be to overcome your own limits, test your powers and come out a winner. Even if you’re not ready for that right now, you can teleport just two or three of us at a time. Don’t sweat it, bro, really.”

But Kurt’s eyes already sparked, inspired by Maximoff’s words. He jumped from the fence graciously and extended his hands, saying, “I think I’m gonna try it out.”

Peter got down, too, and met his sister’s gaze. She quickly realized that her brother’s desire to get a good story to laugh at wasn’t the only reason why he talked their friends into sneaking out old-fashioned way. It was also a well-thought out move to save their friends’ mutant abilities for later, especially Kurt’s.

You’re a clever fox, brother. The girl grinned.

Just trying to keep up with you, sis. He winked at her.

The mutants looked around, checking if anyone was watching them but no one really cared about a bunch of youngsters loitering around. When they took each other’s hands, forming a circle, Wagner closed his eyes to concentrate. His signature bluish smoke appeared a few times around them but the location didn’t change so Jean squeezed his hand slightly in encouragement. 

“Remember, don’t sweat it,” Wanda bantered.

The teleport rallied his strength, picturing the needed place and in a second, they found themselves in another part of Central Park. Wagner was fighting a strong desire to have a nap right on the spot as his vision became blurry and knees wobbly, but Peter and Scott caught him up, holding in place.

Summers clapped their friend on the back, congratulating him with reaching another milestone in discovering of what his powers were capable of.

Taking a better look around, Munroe realized that the free spot they were now occupying was a small piece of land in the sea of dancing and singing people.

Once the gang heard energizing voice of Elton John whose figure dressed in an extravagant suit and hat was visible from there, they couldn’t resist the urge to shift from one foot to another to the rhythm of the music. Even Kurt absorbed that intoxicating in a good way atmosphere, his tail twitched with the beat. Wanda put her arm on Jean’s shoulders, drawing her into the dance and making them both laugh. Peter swung Ororo backward, then swiveled her in his hands while Scott tried to moonwalk between them all.

“’Cause Saturday night’s the night I like. Saturday night’s alright, alright, alright, ooh,” they all screamed out of tune, kicking their legs and throwing their hands in the air.

Pure joy and euphoria from being all together in another city without anyone knowing about it, surged through their bodies, fulfilling their souls and making their eyes shine brighter than the stars in the sky.

I’m a juvenile product of the working class

Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass, oh

They were jumping barefoot on the grass; their shoes and jackets were laying under a tree in a pile because the summer breeze could no longer cool them down. Jean rolled the sleeves of her mustard blouse and twisted its ends into the knot, making a top out of it. Kurt shoved his hair back away from his face, wiping a bed of sweat threatening to roll down his temple.

“I’m chasing the croooown,” the twins sang, hitting the high note and dancing together, their moves astoundingly identical.  

Both of them were having the time of their lives, finally celebrating long-awaited reunion.

After a short break that gave everyone a chance to steady their heartbeat and breath in some air, Elton John came back to the stage dressed in a Donald Duck costume. When he sat at the grand piano again, a slower-paced song poured out from under his fingers.

Oh, little Jeannie

She got so much love, little Jeannie

So I see you when I can

You make me all a man can be

The crowd had split into love birds, swaying to the music in each other’s arms, and ordinary people, who were also swaying, but with wonderous looks on their faces.

The mutants weren’t exception. Scott gently almost hesitantly drew Jean closer to himself and she vowed her arms around his neck, a sweet, bashful smile was playing on her lips.

Wanda and Peter hugged each other by the shoulders, their heads touching, thinking about how blessed they were to have each other. Family ties meant much more to the twins than any romantic interest because they believed them unbreakable.

You stepped into my life from a bad dream

Making the life that I had, seem

Suddenly shiny and new

Oh, Jeannie (oh, Jeannie)

I’m so in love with you

For a moment Jean’s world emptied of everything except Scott, who leaned closer, his soft lips leaving a tender kiss on hers, and that music wrapped them in a cocoon of all-consuming bliss. Peace that didn’t really last for long because their friends awwed, making both of them blush. 

“You guys are rocking,” they heard an unfamiliar voice from somewhere above.

“These two should be a couple, too,” the other one said, then they heard him giggle. “Dude, it rhymes.”

The mutants flinched in surprise and tilted their heads up to see two men in their early thirties sitting right on the branches of a nearest tree. The strangers waved at them.

Instinctively, Peter put a hand on his sister’s arm, slightly pushing the girl behind his back.

“Heilige Scheiße*” slipped out of Kurt’s mouth.

Maximoff would have tsked and shook her head with some mocking comment but she was busy studying the intruders. From what she could see both men were dressed in fine clothes and in general looked normal, except for the rather silly smiles on their faces.

“Frank, did you buy a knock off?” the man asked his fellow. “I keep my eyes on that guy but he is still blue.”

Strange you can see something in them at all, Ororo thought, peering at his sunglasses.

“I dunno, man. I see him blue, too,” Frank replied.

“Now I get why this place was empty,” Wanda muttered.

Ironically, another song began to play on the background.

High-priced madness pays the tab

I’ve scraped too much of nothing from your plastic bag

I’m a catatonic son of a bitch who’s had

A touch too much of white powder

“I think it’s time to bounce,” Scott suggested.

“It is indeed,” Maximoff remarked taking a look at her brother’s watch.

Although having a good time at the concert was a great cause, there was still one a bit greater – return the car to Ms. Maximoff. And the night was the best time to do that because the twins knew, once they cross the threshold their mom would try to talk them out of returning to Xavier’s school and as neither the girl nor the speedster of them wanted to upset her and abandon their “father plan” at the same time it would be better not to meet face to face yet. If Wanda knew that she would stay at school for so long she wouldn’t have taken that car to begin with.

The mutants dusted off their feet, Jean slipped easily into her cowboy boots and tittered together with shoeless Wagner when their friends bent over to tie their shoelaces, cursing the idea of having them at all. They picked up their jackets, Peter adjusted the leather camera strap on his neck and they were ready to go.

“It’ll be better if you teleport two or three of us at a time,” the red-haired telepath advised Kurt, sensing his lack of energy.

Green leaves fell on their heads, branches crackled and their new friend from the tree asked sounding really disappointed, “Are you leaving already?”

The gang swapped a glance, silently deciding to harry up. Not that these two strangers were really a problem for those who had mind controlling powers, energy and optic blasts to shoot and many more in store but still none of them had the desire to get involved into some bizarre situation.

Wagner teleported the girls first, leaving them near a still open coffee shop not far from the park. He took a minute to rest and puffed back to where he left the young men.

Before they dissolved into thin air, Peter looked up at the tree and asked, “Yo, man, one of you is Frank and the other one is…?”

“Eddie,” the stranger replied simply.

Scott scrunched up his face. “Why do you even need that?”

“The more details you have the better your story,” the speedster replied with a grin when they joined Ororo, Jean and Wanda.

“Yeah, his stories may sound so authentic I’m sometimes confused if I saw described events myself or just listened to Pete,” his sister remarked.

All of them giggled.

“Aside from the jerks, it was really cool,” Grey admitted, looking at the Maximoffs. “Thanks for convincing us to go.”

Munroe made a face, noting jokingly, “It was you whom they convinced, I was ready to jump in the car and go to New York before any of you even said a word about the trip.”

They all giggled again.

Walking down the streets of the Big Apple, the mutants commented on Elton John’s costumes, choosing their favorite (Peter liked the hat with keyboard print, Wanda wanted the same geometric pattern shirt like one of the guitar men had (“Together with his phone number,” her brother teased and was nudged by the girl), others chose the duck costume), they joked a little about Jean’s love for the singer, completely trashed out a couple of random people from the crowd they found annoying and talked all things they could, lighthearted.

When they reached limestone townhouse with beautiful garden under its windows and half destroyed glass building on the other side of the road (landmarks they chose to navigate their way back to the point where this New York adventure has started) Wanda’s blood ran cold in her veins. She scrutinized every detail here to make sure her eyes didn’t trick her but it didn’t help.

“Um, guys,” the girl drawled, the tone of her voice a bit hesitant. “Are you sure it’s the exact spot?”

“Yeah, there’s that trash can with Scooby-Doo,” Kurt replied, gesturing to the metal thing adorned with rather accurate drawing of the cartoon character (well, apparently not all of them had the same reference point).

Peter was just half a minute later then his sister to notice the catastrophe.

That’s a total fuck up, lit up in his mind.

It felt like the Maximoffs’ porcelain service situation all over again, on the grander scale though.

 That eerie stillness in twins made the mutants stop abruptly, wiping off all the merriment from their faces. They exchanged glances, perplexed, their attention flicked from Peter and Wanda to their surroundings, and only then it downed on them that the sight missed one significant detail, namely, the dark blue Ford Ltd II, or simply Ms. Maximoff’s car.   

It was either the rising panic Jean could sense in her friends or her own imagination, but the one minute ago romantically half lit street turned into one of many alarmingly empty sidewalks somewhere in the middle of unfamiliar city. The idea of being here without actual adults didn’t seem so exciting anymore.

“Shit,” Scott expressed a collective thought.

One look at Maximoff was enough to understand that gears in her mind were turning hastily, trying to find some solution. A smoking man leaning out of his window on the second floor caught her eye and, without giving it a second thought, she headed towards the fancy building.

“Excuse me, sir,” the girl began, putting on a plastic smile. “Maybe you could be of any assistance to me and my friends. I parked a car just right here, Ford sedan, dark blue, with metallic sheen. Did you happen to see where it…disappeared, so to say?”

Lazily, he dragged on his cigarette, looking down at Wanda, assessing her from head to toe, then let out a puff of smoke. An essence of unease washed over Ororo’s body from that stare, but it did little to her friend, she retained that false affability she was a master to summon.

“Most likely taken to the impound lot,” the man finally uttered emotionlessly. “Ask Bernie. And learn to park.”

With that, he threw the cigarette onto the pavement and shut his window.

“What a sleazebag,” Grey muttered, indignant for her friend.

Scott furrowed. “Could’ve at least told where to find that Bernie.”

Peter glanced at his sister and nodded up ahead to a bodega “Bernie’s grocery. “Gotta be somewhere here.”

They crossed the road and walked past a few buildings to stop near one on the corner, a green neon sign “Open” flashing on its glass door.

“You stay here,” Wanda said to the mutants, and took a look behind their backs, scanning for any potential troubles. “We’ll be right back.”

As soon as the speedster opened the door, the scent of spilled chip beer mixed with something extremely chemical filled their noses. The twins scrunched up their faces in disgust.

The place looked like a pocket stuffed with everything you would’ve never put together, from rat poison to lollipops to something clearly illegal judging by the look on cashier’s face. The young man peered at the small TV screen blankly, his bloodless lips parted slightly and his eyelids half closed as if he was immensely tired, readying himself to black out any minute.

Just what we need, shot through the twins’ minds but there wasn’t much they could do but to pry out something useful from that guy.

“Greetings,” the girl chirped.

Slowly, the cashier lifted his eyes to her but they were glassy and unfocused, there was a strong possibility he didn’t get what she just said.

“We’ve been told you can help us in finding our car,” Wanda went on, not believing her own words.

Not sure you can even help yourself, but hope springs eternal, they say, she thought.

No answer followed.

“Maybe he’s not the guy,” Peter suggested, his brows raised.

He turned his face to the young man and asked, “We’re actually looking for Bernie. Know him?”

The cashier blinked dumbly at him.

Already on edge, Wanda’s patience was waning into nothingness with supersonic speed. The girl was cursing her own idea of killing two birds with one stone because eventually the only birds that would be killed were she and her brother when mom finds out they lost her car.

Tolerance of slowness or dullness (least of all when these two things were combined) was an unfamiliar concept for silver-haired Maximoff either.

“Hello,” he drawled, waving his hand in front of the young man’s face. “Is anyone here?”

“Gonna buy anything?” the guy creaked.

“Oh, so he talks,” Wanda remarked sarcastically, folding her arms.

“Where do we find Bernie?” her brother articulated every word, looking into the cashier’s glossy eyes.

When he didn’t deign it with the answer the girl was ready to use her mutant powers and at least try to knock some sense into him, but they heard a creak of the door from somewhere in the store and a minute later a man walked to them. He had thick beard and wavy dark hair with a bit of silver in them that was neatly styled, sides a bit shorter than the top, his brown eyes studied the Maximoffs not unkindly.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“We’re looking for Bernie,” the girl replied, slipping on her amicable mask.

The man smiled warmly at her. “Then you’ve found one.”

Peter and Wanda exchanged glances.

“You’re the owner?” the speedster specified.

Bernie simply nodded.

“Thank God,” Maximoff uttered on exhale. “I hope you can help us. You see, I parked a car on this street, dark blue Ford Ltd, but it’s no longer here. One nice man advised us to ask Bernie and here we are.”

That extra sweetness added to the “nice man” didn’t escape Bernie’s notice and he guessed who could’ve “advertised” him.

“Oh, I see,” he drawled. “Must be Mr. Sikes. Nice man, indeed.” 

Silver-haired Maximoff snorted.

“I didn’t see your car,” the man admitted and Wanda’s heart sank.

“But I have a security camera outside, so we can review the footage,” he added hastily, noting the girl’s expression.

The twins sighed in relief though it was short lived because they realized that it was only the recording they’ve found, not the car. They followed the owner of the store to the “staff only” room, Peter right by his sister’s side, keeping vigilant eye on everything.

Meanwhile the gang was breathing in the fresh New York’s air.

“What’s taking them so long?” Summers whined, rolling on his toes impatiently.

Munroe narrowed her eyes in attempt to see something through the dirty glass case. “Maybe we should’ve gone with them.”

“Wanda said to wait here,” Kurt reminded.

“Is she your general you are ready to obey her orders?” Scott remarked sarcastically, making the teleport grit out his sharp teeth.

Jean nudged her boyfriend with her elbow and gave Wagner a pointed look. “You two, stop it. Now. One quarrel wasn’t enough you decided for another round?”

The young men looked down, abashed.

The red-haired telepath cast a worried glance at the dark street. “I hope whatever takes them so long will help us all out of this situation.”

Finally, the door of the store opened, letting out the twins and an unknown man.

“Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Ehrlich,” Wanda said genuinely.

Peter continued her thought, twisting a map in his hands, “Yeah, if it weren’t for you, we would’ve been in real trouble.”

A smile tugged Mr. Ehrlich’s lips. “I would advise you to postpone the search until morning, but something tells me it won’t have any effect.”

His attention flicked to the mutants, eyes stopped briefly on Wagner before going back to the twins.

“One more thing before we depart,” silver-haired Maximoff crooned. “Why do you keep him in here? The dude is…”

“A total creep” his grimace finished the sentence.

The man sighed. “He’s a part of the family.”

“Oh” slipped out of Wanda’s mouth before she pressed her lips apologetically.

“Well, a dank and shalom*, I guess,” she said with a smile.

“Zol zayn mit mazel* with your store,” Peter added kindly.

Mr. Ehrlich patted them both on the arms and replied, “Biz shpeter*, I hope.”

He stepped inside the store, leaving the Maximoffs to their friends.

Ororo jerked her chin to where the man stood a moment ago. “Is that the mysterious Bernie?”

“How many languages do you speak?” Wagner asked, catching German words but not quite all.

“And what language was that?” Scott added.

Grey took a shrewd look at brother and sister. “What did you find?”

The twins swapped a glance and grinned at their friends’ curiosity.

“Ikh red nisht keyn Yidish*. I only know a few phrases,” Peter replied.

“Me too,” his sister admitted a bit regretfully. “It’s Yiddish, our ancestors’ language. Answering two more of your questions – yes, that was the very Bernie and yes, we did find useful information.”

The speedster folded his arms and uttered with displeasure, “Cops towed the car. It turns out you can’t park near buildings for demolition.”

“Bloody NYPD,” Wanda muttered. “Could’ve put a sign.”

“Are we gonna look for the car now?” the teleport asked.

“We can put them on a bus and send them back to the school,” Peter suggested, looking at his sister.

“I bet they don’t even know the road there.”

Wanda cast a skeptical glance at the youngsters and they shook their heads.

“What if they get lost? Or something happens on their way back to the school? Xavier will have our heads. Literally.”

“C’mon, sis,” the speedster waved it off, “he is a softie. Besides, they’re not kids. They’ll figure it out if something happens. If happens at all.”

The mutants stood in the middle of the street, their eyes darted from one party to another. The twins reminded Summers of his parents, one was ready to give the children a chance to explore the world and learn from their own mistakes while the other one always saw only kids who needed constant guidance, with best intentions though.

“I’ll go with you,” Munroe intervened.

The Maximoffs stopped bickering and flicked their attention to her.

“Me too,” Kurt announced readily.

Peter lifted a brow, looking at Scott and Jean.

The girl gave him a shrug. “Is there a point for only two of us to come back?”

Summers shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather bomber jacket and puffed out his chest a little. “We can come in handy.”

It’s better to keep an eye on them so we don’t get involved in something else.

Are you sure it works that way?

Have no bloody idea, honestly.

Silver-haired Maximoff sized the gang up and unfolded the map given him by Mr. Ehrlich.

“Then the real adventure begins now.”

They all studied detailed depiction of New York’s veins and arteries, the places that were circled with red marker. Having chosen their first destination, they went down the same street that brought them here.

“Want to teach that asshole some manners?” Peter asked, eyes twinkling with mischief when they were walking past their first “helper’s” house.

A wicked grin bloomed on his twin’s lips. “I kinda did it already.”

Indeed, once the aforementioned gentleman shut his window, Wanda’s power reached him and seized his mind, forcing him to accidentally bump into the nearest stool (she made sure he hit his little toe). And it just happened so that the doorframe was also on the man’s path, again, by sheer luck he knocked his forehead against it. Twice.  

The speedster snorted, half expecting that answer. Wanda had no problems with standing up for herself or those whom she cared (or teaching the offenders important lessons). Keeping quite was never their thing, neither verbally nor when it came to taking actions.

....

They walked around the whole neighborhood to check out three impound lots but the result was the same – no Ford Ltd. At some point they decided to use subway because even Peter felt a bit tired. But none of them besides Wanda and Scott had money so they had to get creative. To be more precise Ororo broke the turnstile with little lightnings slipping out of her fingertips a few times and once Jean shielded them, making invisible to other people and opening the gates with her telekinesis.

In all honesty the mutants felt like staying invisible for the whole time spent under the ground but it was reckless consumption of Grey’s energy. If poorly lit sidewalks of the Big Apple sparked unease in some of them then exploring this place felt like somebody poured a gallon of anxiety and threw a burning match. Every detail here was nightmarish from the dark tunnels and low ceiling to a powerful smell, sickly yellow lights, “wrong elements” loitering around and filthy everything. The unwavering feeling of suffocation haunted them all.

Mr. Ehrlich’s piece of advice began to seem like the wisest words the youngsters had ever heard.

“We’re not gonna find it today,” Kurt uttered in desperation when they left the sixth impound lot.

They all let out a heavy sight but made it down to the subway platform again anyway. It turned out that the train heavily “adorned” with graffiti started before they even fully reached it but that was actually a blessing. In one of the windows Wanda spotted Eddie and Frank waving at them.

If we find the car in the next impound lot, I quit adventuring for the nearest future, she promised to herself.

Silver-haired Maximoff had similar thought in his mind. This story was already entertaining enough to add something else.

“You know, I admit being unreasonable,” his sister said once they were under the starry sky. “You would have already been at school if you caught the bus, in the safety of those walls, relaxing in your soft beds instead of roaming with us through godforsaken places.”

“Write it down in your history books, kids,” Peter bantered. “Wanda admitted her way of thinking wrong. Someone must be watching a solar eclipse right now.”

The girl shouldered him lightly, the corners of her lips tugged upward. Ororo was walking beside the speedster wearing his silver bomber jacket as the night breeze became chilly, Scott put his arm around Jean’s shoulders, keeping her close and Kurt was mostly looking heavenward, mesmerized by the vastness and that deep nearly black color of the sky and also because there wasn’t much to see around, honestly. Weary and sleepy, they traipsed to another fenced area that at this point felt like a highly unpleasant déjà vu, still they chuckled at Maximoff’s remark, perking up for a moment.

When the mutants reached the impound clerk’s cabin, Peter knocked on its window and a few minutes later it opened, revealing a morose man whom they distracted from completing a crossword puzzle.

“What do you want?” he inquired, sizing up the youngsters.

“We’re looking for the dark blue Ford Ltd II sedan that was towed from Berkwood Avenue today,” Wanda replied with an already learned by heart phrase.

Letting out a heavy sigh, the man looked at the register and with a pencil in his hand ran down through the list of the cars stored on his impounding lot.

“FLA 178 Washington?”

The twins’ eyes lit up instantly.

“Yes,” they answered in unison.

“Have any documents?”

“They’re in the car,” Wanda replied, scrunching up her face.

Should’ve at least taken my driving license with me, she thought, making a mental note for the future.

“I can’t give you the car without the documents,” the impound clerk said with a blank face.

The speedster gave him a look. “We have the keys. We open the car you get to see the documents.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” the man retorted. “Besides, you need to pay the fine.”

Maximoff almost tsked but kept it in. “How much?”

“One hundred eighty.”

“What?!” the girl exclaimed so indignantly the mutants behind her back flinched. “One hundred eighty? There wasn’t even a sign!”

The bastard was unmoved. “Still one hundred eighty.”

Munroe wasn’t even sure she’d ever held that much money in her hands. As did any of them, actually (except for Wanda because serving drinks at the pub was quite lucrative way of spending the night time, yet it didn’t mean she had Benjamins neither with her nor in general). Summers’ ten dollars in the pocket cried in its insignificance.

Marking a bunch of kids as unworthy to be the reason of being later eaten by the hordes of mosquitoes already drawn to the light in his cabin, the impound clerk pulled his window to the right, closing it.

Wanda threw her hands in frustration, reciting some of the worst profanities she knew in her mind and plotting her next, more likely fruitless harangue when her eyes caught a familiar sheen in the light of a lamppost. Their car! Strictly speaking their mom’s but it wasn’t the point. The point was that it stood there, presumably, safe and sound yet unattainable as that cranky old man and chain link fence made a semblance of a barrier between the Ford and its almost owners.

The girl braced her hands on her hips and turned around, she bit her lip while her eyes wandered from one tired face to another, sorting out possible options because leaving the car here didn’t speak to her.

“What if we play the mutant card?” Maximoff mused.

Peter, who had already thought about using his supersonic speed to solve the problem quickly and effectively, narrowed his eyes for a moment, giving it a thought.

“Don’t see how it can go wrong,” he replied with a shrug.

“I can see at least a hundred ways of how it can go wrong,” Jean objected, lowering her voice. “That’s not what the Professor teaches us at school.”

“Many things are not taught at school, it doesn’t make them any less significant,” Wanda remarked.

The red-haired telepath gave her a pointed look. “You know what I mean.”

“I doubt the Professor taught you how to break the subway gates,” the speedster weighed in on.

“But that’s different,” she tried to defend but the point was rather weak so she looked at Scott, Ororo and Kurt, seeking for help.

“We can listen to their plan and decide,” Munroe suggested, then jerked her head slightly at Wanda. “I bet you have one.”

The girl grinned at her, indeed having a stratagem in her mind. She cast a glance at the impound clerk and though he was wholly consumed by writing a word in the empty squares, she motioned for them to walk a few feet away from the cabin.

“I schemed a few ways of dealing with the problem,” Wanda began.

Summers lifted his brow but before he could make any comment, she warned him, “Don’t start with that family thing again.”

The young man heeded the advice and held his tongue not at all desiring to start an argument again, least of all in the middle of nowhere.

“Anyway, the plan ironically relies mostly on our fearmonger –” she inclined her head towards Grey, making the girl purse her lips “– as she is a telepath who can put one obstacle to sleep and a telekinetic to open another, Ororo and Kurt on the look out. After this part is done, Peter takes care of Ford, Scott and I check the registration card and all the documents before Jean locks the place back and we all successfully jump into the car, driving into the sunrise.”

“You do know that stealing your car is still a steal?” Jean asked.

Wanda drew her brows in indignation. “Charging a one hundred eighty dollars bill for parking in unrestricted area is a steal, we’re just taking back what belongs to us.”

“Call it what you want, but you’re engaging us in participation of a crime,” Grey insisted.

“And what are we gonna do if someone shows up to get back their car too?” Scott posed a reasonable question.

Tracing the logic behind his sister’s division of mutants and all, silver-haired Maximoff answered, “Out of the six of us Kurt has the best night vision. If he sees someone coming, he’ll give a signal to us to hurry up and to Ororo so she could incite a stormy wind or a few lightnings to scare these poor buddies away.”

“Sounds rather well-calculated,” Munroe admitted.

They all flicked their attention to Kurt. He kept silent because he couldn’t decide what side to pick. The teleport really wanted to help the twins yet getting into trouble, especially where the law was considered, didn’t seem like the best course of actions for an already illegal resident.

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’m not going to insist,” Wanda reassured them calmly. “It’s your decision to make.”

“Yeah, the two of us can pull it off,” Peter added nonchalantly.

Summers remembered himself saying if needed he would come in handy and now, when they all were on the verge of chickening out, his conscience reminded him that he should keep truthful to his words.

“It’s incomparable to the military base situation, of course, but we kind of broke the rules once,” he drawled, wondering if he was making a mistake. “We got into that mess together and we can deal with it together, too.”

Maximoff snorted in surprise not quite believing to hear an inspirational speech from her morning nemesis while her twin gave the young man a nod of appreciation.

Ororo had that mindset from the very beginning and now its rightness only strengthened.

Kurt realized that choosing to walk away now meant turning his back on perhaps his closest friends in time of troubles. It didn’t sit well with him.

Again, Jean was the one who needed coaxing.

“The military base was completely different matter,” she didn’t give up. “They didn’t have the right to lock you in the cell. And I’m not sure we would’ve made it without Logan.”

“Logan?” Wanda asked, a confused line appeared between her brows.

“We met a man down there,” the girl explained. “They experimented on him, took away his memories and when I let him out, he…got rid of the solders. I found a piece of his past and gave it back to him.”

“He had claws. And wires around his head,” Kurt said and shrugged, reminiscing the moment when the stranger pulled screws out of his body.

Maximoff turned to her brother. “Wasn’t it by any chance the very Logan that came to our house back then, when you recklessly agreed to break into the Pentagon?”

He lifted his shoulder in a half shrug. “You know my memory, it’s short lived when it comes to names.”

“I knew Moira’s name didn’t pop up in your head all of a sudden!” the girl exclaimed in reproach.

“You broke into the Pentagon?!” Summers exclaimed incredulously.

“Can’t believe he didn’t tell you that story,” Wanda muttered with a faint grin.

The gang now gaped at the speedster, but he smirked and astonished them even more with new revelation.

“The whole thing turned into a prison break and it happened to be none other than our father whom I pulled out so two days later he could give his infamous speech from the TV screens.”

His sister shook her head ruefully. “They still can’t rebuild that stadium he ripped out.”

“Never really liked it,” Peter admitted, crinkling his nose.

Wanda’s eyes turned pensive for a second. “Yeah, but remember we watched a game there once? The seats on the second ring were nice. No sun, no screaming assholes, no pesky mascots, no balls flying into your face. Heaven.”

The siblings went on discussing the stadium, even laughing at the memory of their mom being kissed by some famous baseball player while their friends looked shell-shocked, to say at least. It was hard to pick something specific that made their jaws drop – Peter basically robbing the Pentagon, Erik being a prisoner there, Erik, who tried to kill the President on national TV, was also the twins’ father (staying in the dark about it though), the Maximoffs-Lehnsherrs talking about it all casually. There was a lot to unpack.

“Beg your pardon, off-topic here,” Maximoff said to the mutants as she and the speedster got back to the present moment. “So, you’re telling me you met two strange dudes wearing crazy headpieces, freed one and defeated another all in the same day? I now get why Jean doesn’t want to be involved in this pseudo impound lot robbery.”

In addition to her rather impish tone the girl used quotation fingers around the four last words.

Whatever decision Gray would’ve made, she knew Wanda and Peter had already managed to win everyone over.

She let out a heavy resigning sigh therefore setting the plan into motion.

“We agreed on the course,” the speedster said, taking a meaningful look at every one of his friends.

They all gave him a subtle nod of confirmation.

“And action!” Maximoff announced in a hushed voice, her eyes gleamed playfully in the dark when she tossed the car keys to her twin.

Munroe and Wagner scurried to the access road, taking their positions as look outs.

Jean put two fingers to her temple and focused, letting her powers wander to the unsuspecting men’s mind.

Sign into law, he mused. Accept? Nah, too many letters. Make law, make law…

Better make one more ‘no parking’ sign, the telepath thought and before her victim could get scared of unfamiliar female voice in his head, she shut him down.

The four of them hastened to the chain link fence. The telekinetic outstretched her hand, her fingers tensed as she was working on unlocking the gates, Peter waiting by her side, meanwhile Wanda and Scott slipped into the cabin.

There was the first problem on the horizon – the sleeping beauty rested his head on the desk, too close to start drooling right on the register list. The more the youngsters watched the scene the more their eyebrows creeped up and noses wrinkled.

Maximoff cast a glance at her accomplice and whispered, “I need these papers.”

“Try to pull it out,” he whispered back encouragingly.

The girl rounded the man’s chair, leaned forward and hesitantly picked a corner of the document with two fingers but it didn’t budge. She curled her lips and made another attempt only to hear the peculiar ripping sound. Wanda lifted her head silently asking for help.

Summers walked up to the snorting impound clerk from the other side.

“Won’t we wake him up?” he uttered almost soundlessly.

She gave him a half shrug.

With considered gentleness they both put their hands on the man’s shoulders and pushed him to the back of his seat, surprised to find how heavy a human body can be when its master was unconscious. Their victim’s head fell to the side, his eyelids flattered; however, it seemed like he wasn’t in a hurry to say goodbye to the sweet dreams so he just smacked his lips looking rather content. The mutants breathed out, relieved.

Maximoff ran through the list of registered cars, stopped her finger on their Ford Ltd and put a stamp next to it, an unarguable “paid” in bright red ink was now imprinted on the paper. As if he were a henchman with experience, Scott handed the girl a blank form and a pen readied in advance.

 Meanwhile Peter was already sitting in the car with an engine started suddenly feeling a fit of anxiety because he rarely used cars, least of all took the driver’s seat, relying mostly on his powers (why needing a vehicle when your own legs could hightail you anywhere and anytime for free?).

So many unnecessary steps, he cursed the manual transmission, trying to get the bite point also known as the opportunity to get the hell out of here.

Right when the speedster removed the handbrake, slowly driving the car out of its parking place, lightning flashed in the sky, an ominous thunderclap followed thirty seconds later. The wind blew through the impound lot, kicking up dust in its wake so that Jean had to shut her eyes and hide her face in the crook of her arm.

It also made the impound clerk jolt awake in his seat.

Scott swiftly grabbed Wanda’s arm and pulled her back, pressing them both into the corner of the cabin. The girl held the half-filled form close to her heart as if it were a love letter from Shakespeare himself. They watched as the man stood up and peered through the window but having found nothing abnormal, he simply stretched his muscles and plopped back down into his chair, picking up the newspaper’s page with unsolved crossword puzzle. All the mutants were now trapped in their positions.

With nothing else left to do, Wanda had to use a trick she seldomly practiced these days. The girl steadied her heartbeat, ignoring Summers’ warm breath that touched the shell of her ear, shifting her attention to the power living in every cell of her body instead. Her mind wandered to the clerk’s, looking into its depth for the clues. Finally, she found an image from his childhood and twisted it into the waking nightmare.

The man jumped up from his place with a shrike of pure horror, clapping his shoulders, chest and face obsessively for the reason Summers couldn’t place. Maximoff’s reaction perplexed him even more as she freed herself from his grasp and confidently headed to the desk, not at all bothered by the man who seemed to lose his mind.

“What are you doing?” Scott asked in lowered voice, trying and failing to understand the situation.

“Currently trying to remember my zip code,” she drawled pensively, her fingers playing with the pen. “Could you, please, find me any document with this gentleman’s signature?”

Realizing the young man was still standing in the corner, she glanced up at him. His lips were parted, making him look lost and, in all honesty, a bit like a dummy, Wanda was sure his eyes were round behind these glasses since one detail changed significantly in her appearance. The lenses Hank made for him gave the opportunity to see the world without unleashing a catastrophe on it, but took away the ability to decipher colors. Yet Summers could tell Wanda’s eyes and the clerk’s, actually, looked unusually. They were glowing. Literally.

“What –”

Hurry up, someone is coming here, Jean’s voice interrupted the stream of his thoughts. 

“We’ve got visitors!” the young man exclaimed and ran up to the table, finally complying with the girl’s request.

The cabin turned into a complete chaos: the impound clerk was still trying to shake something off of his clothes, bumping into things and the youngsters from time to time, in attempts to find a signed document, Scott mixed up all the papers on the desk, while Maximoff was making a copy of the form for herself.

As soon as all was done, they broke out of there and jumped into the car. Peter pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor before they even closed the doors, speeding off.

The air was soaked with panic, it wrapped around the mutants, shutting down their common sense.

Silver-haired Maximoff didn’t stop to pick up the lookouts, Wanda and Scott simply dragged the mutants into the car, bursting out with exaggeratedly anxious “What happened?!”.

“I saw a movement over there!” Kurt hastened to answer from the back seat, pointing at the large garbage container.

 The poor Ford was rocking up and down on the too high speed for the shitty road, some gripped the door handles, others clutched at the edges of their seats, hitting their heads against the roof, their elbows and knees against all the hard surfaces they could find. When they rounded the very container, something large threw itself on the windshield with a loud “bum”, drawing a scream out of all six mutants.

The speedster no longer saw the road ahead.

“Shake it off!” Munroe shouted.

Abruptly, Peter turned the steering wheel, the car skidded around the corner, their bodies threw to the left as if they were will-less toys. Kurt and Scott couldn’t do anything against the fact they pressed Jean into the door, while Wanda did her best to keep not only herself but also Ororo in place so that the girl wouldn’t bump into the speedster who wasn’t a good driver even in the better circumstances.

“Brake, brake, brake!” Maximoff chant-screamed, terrified.

Her brother followed the advice, the tires screeched violently against the hard surface, an irresistible force pulled them all forward and if it weren’t for Grey’s telekinesis that fastened her and her friends’ seatbelts, they would’ve flown through the windshield.

The smoke and strong smell of burned rubber filled the cabin, making already panickily panting youngsters cough. They got out of the car, shell-shocked and speechless.

The twins rounded the hood and blinked numbly at the Ford.

“What the hell was even that?” Peter muttered under his breath.

The corners of Wanda’s mouth turned down and she slowly shook her head, giving a rather philosophical answer, “Life in a nutshell.”

“More like in fur,” Ororo drawled, looking at something on the wayside.

The mutants walked up to her and leaned forward, narrowing their eyes.

Kurt’s forehead creased. “Did we kill a raccoon?”

“It killed the fucking windshield,” Wanda hissed out.

“It almost killed us,” Scott reminded.

A sudden though occurred to silver-haired Maximoff, making him turn his head to the teleport. “Did you see a raccoon?”

The mutants exchanged glances and let out a collective “ooh” of indescribable nature, its range of expression varied from surprise to disappointment.

Munroe was the one to take a pity on the poor animal. She hunkered down and touched its small fuzzy chest, releasing an electric shock from the tips of her fingers.

“If it’s dead even your powers won’t restart cardiovascular performance,” Wanda appraised.

“Very compassionate of you,” slipped out of Jean’s bloodless lips.

Wanda rolled her eyes. “I’m just raising awareness.”

The gang watched another Ororo’s attempt at bringing the creature back to life as if they were interns in a vet clinic or laboratory. The raccoon’s paw twitched and they leaned a bit more forward to witness a miracle. Their eyes lit up with fascination when a few minutes ago considered to be dead furry victim hesitantly rose from the ground and began some strange broken-robot dance accompanied with a hiss.

Wagner crossed himself.

The next thing they knew, the raccoon gritted out his sharp teeth and ran at them with the speed no one could expect from an injured animal. With a yelp the mutants darted away, pushing each other into the car and shutting the doors.

“Compassion you said?” Maximoff mocked the red-haired telepath, breathing loudly.

Before the girl could say anything, Peter shouted, “Raccoon!”

They all flinched and shrieked, already gripping the door handles to get out of the cabin. All but one. The speedster was laughing in wicked amusement, clapping his tights.

“Jackass!” his twin exclaimed indignantly and slapped his arm.

A second later a guffaw erupted from them all, erasing every other sound in a mile. As the adrenaline comedown descended into hysterics none of them could stop until their stomachs felt tight and sore and the youngsters weren’t sure what made them laugh so hard besides the fact that this impound lot adventure looked like a true heist scene indeed. From a low budget comedy though.

Still a bit giggly, Wanda scrutinized the cobweb of cracks on the windshield. She laid her hand on it, feeling the coldness and sharpness of the broken glass under her palm. Red energy surged through her veins, illuminating them from the inside, spilling out and flowing, filling the gaps between the pieces and melting them into a single entity.

Ororo held her breath, mesmerized by the magic. She couldn’t choose any other word for what she witnessed.

“You’re a mutant too,” Kurt uttered, astonished, his voice barely above a whisper.

Maximoff’s eyes met Jean’s in the rearview mirror.

“Some of you might’ve already known that.”

Scott cast an inquiring glance at his girlfriend.

“I didn’t. Maybe on subconscious level,” Grey replied and for a moment her gaze turned distant, “I can tell when some of you are worried or full of joy or just tired but I never…I always meet an impenetrable wall in you. There’s some kind of sheer barrier that tricks me into thinking your mind open when in fact once I try to really look through it, it’s…it’s like the picture is glitching. I can’t tell what you think. Or feel.”

A corner of Wanda’s mouth lifted – a self-congratulatory expression of a sort.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Summers asked, his tone unexpectedly frustrated.

The girl threw her arm on the backseat and looked at him over her shoulder.

“Sorry, didn’t find a tee with ‘I’m mutant and proud’ or that kind of bullshit,” she scoffed.

Her friends smirked; some shook their heads ruefully already accustomed to her sarcastic nature.

“What did you do to that guy in the cabin?” Scott went on, trying to understand Wanda’s powers.

A knowing expression bloomed on Peter’s face as his lips stretched in a grin. “Bewitched him, didn’t you?”

Maximoff grinned back. “There was an incident in his childhood when he woke up and found himself covered in dozens of bags. I thought ‘Why not recreate a pleasant memory and look how he’ll deal with that this time?’.”

Munroe lifted her brows, her eyes wide open. “You can read minds?”

“Why did you ask Jean to put him to sleep then?” Kurt puzzled.

“I may be a bit lazy at times,” she whispered conspiratorially, hedging to give a direct response.  

Wanda flicked her attention to the speedster and tilted her head in a silent question. He looked at his watch and pressed his lips.

“Okay, kiddos,” he drawled in an impish manner, “it’s time to continue our trip and our next stop is the Maximoffs’ hideout aka mom’s house. Be good and buckle up.”

His twin turned away and started the car, an obvious sign the interrogation was over.

“Would you do the honor and be my compass?” the girl bantered, gently pressing the accelerator pedal.

“Always,” Peter answered only half joking.

Their dark blue Ford peacefully cruised up and down the labyrinth of streets, blending into the night on suspicious nooks and crannies and shimmering in the lights of respectable avenues. They drove in silence that seemed taut and soothing at the same time, even the radio didn’t dare to disturb the purgatory-like state now reigning in the cabin. When they were on their way out of New York City, Wanda briefly stopped the car, gave her brother a few bucks and when the young man came back, he was holding a cute plush rabbit toy with a “I Love NY” logo embroidered on the little heart between its paws.  

“You did great,” Maximoff said quietly when she was driving them past Philadelphia, Ororo napping on Peter’s shoulder. “With that whole impound lot catastrophe, you did great. Obstacle driving – completed successfully.”

Her words were complimented with a check mark she drew in the air.

The speedster chuckled softly.

“I can drive this thing again if you’re tired,” he offered, studying her profile to see how the corners of her mouth were tugged by a faint smile.

“Don’t worry, I can handle two more hours of sitting behind the wheel.”

There was no point in objecting that, silver-haired Maximoff knew his twin too well to think something can change her mind even though there were clear traces of tiredness in her features.

The two of them immersed into silence again, listening to the measured engine run and the breeze. But not for long.

“How was your day in the lab with the new co-worker?”

She didn’t answer straight away. The time spent with her father and Hank now seemed like a moment from another life.

Wanda glanced up at the rearview mirror but neither the love birds nor Kurt paid attention to them, simply watching the fast-changing scenes in the window.

“They weren’t the first ones to find out I have powers,” she surprised the young man. “I accidentally broke a set of test tubes.”

It made Peter’s brows drew together.

“But there was no incident in years.”

The mutation was never a burden easy to carry through life. Although the speedster’s journey with his supersonic speed wasn’t the easiest one yet it was no match to his sister’s. He watched her struggle to obtain control over these immense powers she was born with, knew firsthand how isolated and bewildered she felt back then, in their teen years. Wanda didn’t let it break her, at times, she didn’t let things break him, holding them both afloat. Something truly serious must have happened for her to lose control.

“He told me what happened in Poland,” the girl confirmed her brother’s guess.

Her knuckles turned white as her hold on the steering wheel tightened.

“He used his powers to save a man at work. The only gratitude he received after was the police that came to his house to take him away from his family. Nina, it turns out, was a mutant, too, and though this part stayed in the dark, I assume she tried to stop them.”

Sorrow started building up in Wanda’s chest, a lump in her throat made her soft voice sound strangled.

It wasn’t hard to guess what end this story would have, still Peter held his breath, anticipating the painful strike.

“An arrow pierced her and her mother at once. One shot and they were gone. The policemen met their fate right after.”

With his hand a bit shaky, the young man rubbed his eyes. The news reports didn’t do any justice telling their dry “Lehnsherr was identified yesterday, in this small town in central Poland where he lived under the name of Henryk Gurzsky. Magda and Nina Gurzsky’s bodies were found among eleven police officers killed in the area” from TV screens around the world.

“Do you think it’s the whole truth?” he asked after all.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as a person says.”

I do.

No one spoke again for the remaining two hours on the road.

....

Only a few faraway planets twinkled in the sky when they pulled up on a driveway of their final destination somewhere in Washington.

“Do not slam the doors,” Wanda warned, articulating every word before the mutants were able to get out of the car.

They took in the sight of a neighborhood that seemed somewhat peaceful, full of greenery, well-maintained houses with manicured lawns drew all the way down a neat and spotless street. Kurt didn’t know what he expected to see when Peter said “hideout” but a rather expensive-looking building made of glass, cream stone and dark wood in a place like this wasn’t it for sure.

For full five minutes the twins had been circling around the Ford like hunting dogs, sniffing any scratches or worse damage on its smooth surface. Having found nothing, they swapped a glance and let out a relieved sigh. The primary mission was completed.

Silver-haired Maximoff took a plush toy out of the cabin and, together with his sister, walked up the stone pawed stairs to the front door. As carefully as she could, Wanda slid the chain away from the door frame and lifted it out of the casing with her powers, letting them in. Aside from the carpet in the corridor, always the victim of the speedster’s escapades, nothing here changed throughout years: same wine-red couch and mom’s favorite geometric patterned chair in front of TV in the living room, half dead flowers on the windows and in the corners that weren’t staffed with something else, practically new kitchen because mom didn’t like cooking, choosing take-outs or “something from the fridge” instead, pictures in frames and empty bottles were scattered everywhere, two more untidy rooms on the right, immaculately organized one on the left and Peter’s cave below. Put simply, much loved home.

Peter snatched a few (dozens) candies from the bowl on the coffee table and approached Wanda, who was scribbling something on a piece of paper. The elegantly written out letters said:

Sorry for being sneaky bastards and for keeping m.i.a. throughout the last week. There was a lot to unpack and still is but we want you to know that we love you endlessly, mom.

P.S. As promised, your car, safe and sound, has been returned to its place.

Yours truly,

Peter and Wanda

The young man smirked but gave his twin a point for the nice gesture mom would surely appreciate. He decided to leave a note for the youngest Maximoff, too, so he took a pen and bouncy letters danced from under his hand.

A little friend for our Cinderella.

Love,

Your old siblings

The speedster folded the paper and attached it to the plush gift with a piece of tape he found in the kitchen (probably the very one he left somewhere around here five years ago), making his twin titter.

“You’ll leave the rabbit bold,” she whispered.

“I’m doing it a favor, bestow upon it a bewitching little detail,” Peter announced dramatically but couldn’t contain his smile.

They tiptoed to mom’s room yet didn’t risk to come in and violate her privacy (in whole truth it was mostly because the hinges cricked) so they just stood there for a moment before going into Lora’s. The little girl buried her face in the pillow, hugging it tightly. Wanda picked up the blanket that was laying lonely on the floor and put it over her sister, tucking it a bit in like their mom usually did. Her twin placed the plush rabbit on the nightstand and kissed the girl lightly onto her temple.

Before any of them could feel the stab of guilt, Peter and Wanda left the house, locking it from the inside.

Ororo noticed that soft open look on their faces, the one people outside the twins’ family rarely received. It was heartwarming and bittersweet for the girl since there was no one in the whole world she loved and cared about as deeply as they did.

“A bit of sugar?” silver-haired Maximoff offered, handing her a candy.

Munroe took it and gave him a half smile in return.

The mutants trudged down the street, chewing on their sweets and listening to the first birds’ songs. At this point they were so tired they were practically asleep on their feet. But there was a long way to go ahead – the youngsters needed to get to the Union Station, catch the right bus to reach New York City only to catch another bus there to get to the nearest Salem Centre’s point and go all the way to Xavier’s school on their own two feet. In short, there was barely one reason to rejoice but a number of to stay wide awake. Therefore, Scott and Wanda bought a cup of strong black coffee for each and triple expresso specifically for Peter.

They’ve got lucky because the first bus that came to the station was the one coming to the Big Apple and there weren’t many people who had a strong desire to travel between two states at four in the morning.

This time Jean didn’t hesitate to use her telepathic powers and once she convinced the driver that the six of them weren’t stowaways, the mutants plopped down onto the back seats with a loud “ooh”.

Initially, they planned to split up their gang into two groups – one had rest when another was on watch and vice versa – but there weren’t noble souls among them to volunteer first for a team of “tired but keep it cool” so they made a deal – if one doesn’t sleep no one sleeps. Thus, when someone began to doze off, they were nudged with the elbow and reminded not to be an asshole.

The night’s darkness was gradually retreating, succumbing to the brightness of the rising sun. Through the windows of the bus, they watched the world wake up, bloom with colors again as the lights along the highway turned off one by one till next time.

Once the mutants got off of the bus, they moved along New York’s streets to Grand Central, marveling at how different the city felt in the day time. Men in suits were marching at work, elbowing their way through the crowd, a child ricocheted off Kurt’s knee as his mother leafed through a magazine right on the go. If at night the mutants worried about getting lost in the cobwebs of streets, at day they got scared of losing each other in the unending flow of people. Nudged and kicked from shoulders to the feet, they made it to the station almost missing the bus.

“The Professor must be awake by now,” Jean remarked with a sigh as they walked down the dusty road from Salem Center an hour later.

“Judging by the absence of his scolding voice in my head it looks like he is still unaware of the sneak out,” Scott said somewhat hopeful.

  Wanda smirked. “Don’t flatter yourself too much, Scotty. Erik saw your Romeo moment.”

Grey’s lips quivered while others laughed openly at the recent memory, drawing a grimace out of the young man.

Peter glanced at his watch. “And he is no doubt up already, strolling through the garden near the chapel.”

Ororo lifted her brows. “You learned his habits?”

“A simple observation,” he waved it off.

One of many he had in his arsenal. The speedster might have been hesitant about coming up to Erik with “Yo, man. Em…I’m your son. You also have a daughter. Congrats with newly obtained fatherhood” yet couldn’t miss anything the man did. It was a way of sort for him to get to know somebody who should’ve been playing ball with him or have a seriously embarrassing talk about girls and responsibilities. Peter knew approximate time when his father usually left his room to make a cup of strong black coffee with no sugar for breakfast, to then go breath in some fresh air or meet with the Professor who always busied him with something. He could guess when Erik wasn’t really present, swept up in his own thoughts and when the shadowy look on his face meant simple tiredness. Once Lehnsherr missed a step in his routine, he wasn’t neither in the garden nor in Xavier’s office in the usual for these things hours, and Peter almost freaked out, thinking the man left the school (turned out he just stopped by the library before noisy youngsters could occupy it).  

“How long have you been at school?” his twin asked the red-haired telepath, dodging the upcoming “Erik Lehnsherr is your unsuspecting father” topic.

There was a feeling uncoiling in Summers’ core, the one he never really experienced before. He knew about the tragic event that led Jean to being here and didn’t want anyone make her revisit it, least of all right now when she was already worn out. But he didn’t have the right to silence the world around the girl, she could easily do it herself so he pressed his lips into a thin line and walked closer to her, a subtle reminder he was there if needed.

“The Professor brought me here when I was twelve,” Grey answered simply.

“I met him around that time. Wouldn’t really entrusted him a kid,” Peter commented, remembering Xavier from the 70s. Back then he smelled like brandy and looked like he was kicked out of a hippie community. The speedster didn’t know what happened with the man in the span of seven years, but the change was tremendous. For the better, fortunately.

Jean looked down at the sparky button on the cuff of her blouse she has been fiddling with for the last twenty minutes. “He was the one who offered me home after my parents died in a car crash.”

“I lost mine when I was a child, too,” Munroe suddenly opened up.

“I don’t even know their names,” Kurt admitted quietly.

Wanda looked into the young man’s face with sympathy. “Wagner isn’t your family name?”

The teleport shook his head. “No. It was made up by the owner of the circus I grew up in.”

“Circus?” Scott repeated more to himself in astonishment.

As it usually happens, he, as much as the Maximoffs, had his ups and downs with the parents. But hearing someone with whom you established rather close relationship saying he was abandoned by his parents, his mother, no doubt because of the unique appearance, learning that the two girls who had been dancing and singing joyously together with them have actually no one to get back to made them grateful for the loving and accepting family they had all the more.

Maximoff fumbled for the right words but were there any? Having found no answer to that, she gently slid her hand into Kurt’s in hopes it could bring some comfort to him. The girl had a place in his heart since the first day she came to the school, since that dinner when she was the only one who noticed his anxiety at the table, who tried to sooth it even though they barely had time to introduce themselves to each other. And now, when it downed on him that her touch was ethereal not because she was disgusted or scared of his claws but because Wanda was ready to let go if he didn’t need it, the young man’s heart leaped in his chest. His fingers hesitantly curled around hers and when Kurt glanced at the girl, he again felt truly seen.   

Meanwhile silver-haired Maximoff mulled over the things he knew about Storm whom he tried to solve like a highly intriguing mystery. Following his sister’s steps, he dared to ask, “How did you end up in Cairo? I remember you telling me about playing in the desert’s sands when you were a kid. I though you lived somewhere in a small city or suburbs.”

“I did,” she confirmed with a slight grin drawn by the speedster’s attention to her stories. “My mom came from a family of farmers and when she met my dad, a journalist from an American newspaper, she practically escaped from the village. They traveled a lot because of his job. When I was born, they brought me along everywhere except for the last time I saw them.

Munroe looked into the distance but Jean could tell the girl didn’t see green clearings and nice old houses ahead, her gaze reached far more remote places.

“There was a military conflict in the east. Dad had to go there to write a report and mom didn’t want to let him go alone. They just couldn’t stay separated for longer than a day.

A faint smile appeared on her lips but didn’t stay here for long.

“They left me with my grandparents and promised to get back soon. “Three days at the most,” mom said. Two weeks later we received a letter from one of dad’s colleagues. “It’s with sorrow, I must inform you that David and N’Dare Munroe were killed in a botched aircraft attack on the town near our camp.” I carried that note until the ink faded and it turned into a crumpled fifteen years old piece of paper I threw into the Nile.

Once she began to tell the story of her life only a few kids back at “home” knew, Ororo couldn’t stop from spilling it out. Finally, she was among those who could not only understand the pain of not having a family but also the struggle of being a mutant.

“When my powers manifested everyone around thought I was a curse on the Earth, even my grandparents. I had to flee from there. I chose Cairo as my destination because mom and dad used to spend most of their time in this city. There were hard days, there were good days but ultimately it all went down to stealing and running, fighting for every brick to build a shelter for myself and those I found on my way.”

“Did you meet many mutants?” Wagner asked her after a long pose.

“None.”

The speedster’s brows rose. “Whoa, that must have been an isolating experience.”

“It was until I saw Mystique on the screen,” she replied and her friends nodded knowingly.

Although Wanda’s powers made their appearance later than his, it somehow was expectable. The twins also knew a few people like them in the schools they attended. Kurt had a glimpse at other mutants while he was held in a fight club. Scott didn’t have the chance to feel like a true outsider because of his powers, besides he had Alex or Havoc, as some called him. And Jean…Well, she was in the very epicenter, having one of the greatest mutants in the world as a father figure. Having met someone with a gift in a sense similar to your own, what’s more being around them, was a completely different experience than just watching a bunch of mutants show off their powers on the international TV.

“I kinda feel excluded from a “right kids” club or something,” Maximoff confessed derisively, confusing all but her brother. “I mean, I saw her too but I was like ‘Ouch, she shot the guy in the helmet! Poor thing didn’t have time to end the show!’.”  

Unexpectedly for himself, Summers huffed a laugh that earned him a pointed look from Peter.

“Later though I appreciated that roundhouse kick in his face,” she joked, drawing a smirk out of her friends. “But I’ve never really looked up to her. It just didn’t click.”

Minutes and miles lost their weight as the youngsters shared their thoughts and experiences, bantering with each other to keep the mood light. So different yet somehow able to find crucial points of convergence. Even Wanda, who wasn’t keen on letting people close, much less letting them in her heart, couldn’t deny the forming bond between them. They all felt it.

That’s why Peter’s “let’s split up” when they were already on the far end of Xavier’s lands struck like a lightning bold. 

He rolled his eyes noticing their bewilderment. “You’re crappy strategists. Wouldn’t it be strange if all six of us appear from the road side, dusted and with these faces? I mean it would look like a badass scene from a movie but I doubt it’s something the Professor would approve.”

His twin pursed her lips, dissatisfied with her sudden inability to think everything through.

Kurt glanced down at his shoeless feet to find the speedster’s words truthful – the skin on them was no longer blue.

Jean’s forehead creased. “What’s wrong with our faces?”

Silver-haired Maximoff gave her an impish look. “Our night escapade is basically written all over them. Except for my sis’, we’ve practiced it for too long, I guess.”

The girl snorted but overall was of the same mind.

Munroe jerked her chin at the speedster, expecting him to have a plan. These Lehnsherrs seemed to always have one.

“Spit it out.”

Gladdened to be in the center of attention, Peter began his lively chattering. Following his legend, this early morning Grey and Munroe decided to stroll through the arboretum, taking in the sight of pacifying pockets of falling water flowing into the pond, while Wagner and Summers round the territory to come to the school from the opposite side since the latter screwed up with the whole sneaking out thing and it would’ve been better if Erik and Charles, who might’ve been informed already (though the speedster believed it to be quite the opposite), didn’t see him with Jean, and Wanda was cast to be by his side (much to the teleport’s displeasure).

Primped, they went in different directions as was instructed.

“Wait!” Ororo called the speedster, catching up with the twins.

She took off the silver bomber and handed it to him with a radiant smile.

He grinned at her, his dark eyes twinkling playfully. “See you around.”

“Prince Charming in the flesh,” Wanda teased when they continued their walk down the road.

“I wasn’t the one to hold hands with the beau,” the speedster teased back, pouting his lips in ridiculous parody on kissing.

“Screw you!” his twin exclaimed, scrunching up her face, and pushed him away. Peter came back with vengeance, messing up Wanda’s neatly styled hair. The girl launched herself at him in attempt to ruffle his silver locks, but he was taller and dodgier so it turned into cat and mouse game, the roles constantly interchanging as they slapped each other, yelped and giggled wickedly when some tricks worked, giving the opportunity to dart away from the chaser.

As a fit of childness wore off, their cheeks reddened more from laughter then from actual running.

“It’s been a long while since we rocked out like that,” Wanda mused impishly.

“And dragged so many people along,” Peter added looking rather satisfied. “Kids’ initiation into teenagers also completed successfully.”

A lopsided grin appeared on the girl’s face. “Let’s hope it won’t backfire.”

He took a long shrewd look at his sister before asking what was really important for him to know. “Feel uncomfortable with your powers being uncovered?”

Maximoff gave it a thought. The speedster always had the benefit of staying unseen since the human and even mutant eye couldn’t fully detect his fast movements. Plus, his mutation wasn’t anything like “Got emotional? Let’s break a couple of things and see if people get scared.”, giving him the chance to use it freely. She, on the other hand, had to play it safe most of the time, looking around twice before letting out the tendrils of energy or peer at reflective surfaces to check if her eyes were glowing with power encrypted in her DNA.

“It’s not the powers I didn’t want to deal with but the myriad of questions that comes with them,” the girl finally replied. “Once they know you can slip into minds, they eye you with suspicion, discrediting everything you’ve ever done or inquiring why you didn’t intervene when could if having so much power on hand. Mutants or not, it mostly goes that way.”

“And what the father’s way was?” the young man asked carefully.

Wanda glanced up at him, a spark of amusement returning to her eyes. “I’ve figured out where that unyielding curiosity of yours has its roots.”

Silver-haired Maximoff lifted a brow, bantering, “Did he bombard you with questions until you gave up?”

The girl chuckled. “To put it mildly. It’s unnerving at best and makes you wish to put a bullet in the head at worst.”

He waved his hand dismissively at that.

“The highway thing with Michael he had a glimpse of brought him down to the lab,” she went on. “He placed it all right and if I didn’t blow up the test tubes, he, unlike Xavier, would’ve eventually asked me about mutation stuff. My glass trick seemed to…fascinate him.”

“Then I should show him your early works.”

“You just know nothing about modern art,” Maximoff retorted nonchalantly, making her brother’s grin turn into an eye wrinkling smile.

When soft grass under their feet was replaced by crunching gravel, marking their return to the school grounds, the speedster’s steps, to his sister’s confusion, came to a halt so she cast an inquiring glance at him.

“Let’s tell him,” the young man said somewhat confident, determined even.

It baffled Wanda more. She, of course, understood the meaning behind these words but couldn’t puzzle what made her brother think of it so suddenly.

“We had enough time to be certain there is much more to him than morally questionable ideas. Waiting for the right moment doesn’t seem like the right thing to do anymore. I sometimes feel like I –”

“– fool him,” the girl continued the thought. “Treat him unfairly by leaving out the truth. As if we test him on being worthy of having it. Or simply lie him in the face.”

There will always be something that makes us doubtful, pushing to put it aside “for a little bit longer”, Peter shared through their bond.

But a “little bit longer” can’t last forever, his tween agreed. We were always lucky to have mom and now we have a real chance to have dad. A chance to make his life less lonely.

They looked into each other’s eyes, immerged into a though that was overwhelming and freeing at the same time.

At last, Wanda sighed.

“I suggest to schedule that thing so we bring a semblance of order in our minds, think through the better way to even start the conversation and –” she glanced down at her night out outfit, Peter mimicking the gesture “– recharge.”

“Two days should be enough,” he concluded.

A rueful kind of smile made its way to the girl’s lips while she shook her head as if trying to wane the disbelieve of finally deciding on the most important thing in their lives at the moment. “We are crazy.”

“We’re crazily good at being just a tiny bit crazy,” silver-haired Maximoff replied.

 He put his arm over her shoulders and she hugged him at waist in return, sharing a look of true sibling’s love.

There is nothing we can’t do when we’re together.

....

*Good evening, my friends

*Holy shit

*Thank you and goodbye

*Good luck

*See you later

*I don't speak Yiddish