• 1-Betrayal
• 2-Meeting one's match
• 3-Less Seems to be More
• 4-Unwilling Passions
• 5-Round Table Discussions- Mutant Style
• 6-Recreation
• 7-The Assignment

“Pull.” Pyro, also know as John, said to Avalon as she called more mud from the ground and made clay disks. Avalon laughed and threw another in the air. Pyro shot his flam and broke the mud plate with glee. About twenty lay on the ground, previously destroyed. The elementalist called the pieces back to her and made more disks. Honestly, she found this amusing, lemon-colored eyes glowing with laughter.

Pietro watched from the side of the building, thinking about what his father had said. We need her to join us. Pietro sighed, “why not just use your other tricks.” Magneto rubbed his temples. Sometimes he wondered about the boy, “Because she would just try and kill me if she thought I was manipulating her. I remember the way Avalon was at Brotherhood. She is very strong willed. I need you to seduce her. Convince her to come with us. She has to join willingly.” Pietro didn’t like this idea. True he got a major perk if it worked… but if it didn’t and she found out… he shuddered to think about that. Pietro still remembered the way she held his arm in the library yesterday. And she wasn’t even trying. No, it was best the stay on her good side. But how to convince her to stay long enough to get her into bed, ‘or against the wall as yesterday almost panned out.’ He racked his brain trying to think of something. The direct approach wasn’t working

“Pull.” Pyro’s voice carried him out of his thoughts. She looked so happy sitting there making… whatever it was that she was making. Why had she stopped? Pietro felt that she wanted him. Her center was so warm against him. Pietro shuddered. Just thinking about was getting him hot. He tried to think of something else. Music floated through the open window:

And I’ve got to be sure

Coz it’s been so long

and I cannot take the pain again

if it all goes wrong

‘That couldn’t be it could it?’ Pietro asked himself. “You don’t date your friends.” It couldn’t be that simple. How long exactly had it been since she had sex? Judging by that kiss last night, it must have been a while. And here he thought he was going nuts after two weeks. Maybe if he convinced her that he was interested in more than sex, he could…. Avalon laughed again. Damn. It was easier to make her believe things when they were kids. Since when did she have such an addicting laugh? Of course, she had convinced him to do some pretty dumb things too. Pietro shuddered as he remembered when the little vixen had made him willingly eat a full bottle of Flintstones vitamins. Her logic was as follows: one vitamin makes you healthy so one hundred vitamins would make him one hundred times as healthy. Stupid girls.

That had caused his pox on the entire female population. That was, until he had met Clora Tigis toward the end of eighth grade. Her long red hair and curvy body was a thing of worshiped beauty. If only the other students had seen it. ‘Curvy’ and ‘Fat’ isn’t much different according to bullies. One day he’d found her in the corner of the library, crying because of those idiots. In trying to comfort her he leaned forward and given her a kiss. His first kiss not only from the goddess in his arms: but ever. And things progressed, and got hotter and deeper and eventually they wound up having sex on the gross school library carpet. The librarian caught them and called their parents, of course. His father had been so mad, lying in with the “humans are less than” speeches he could now recite by heart. But Clora wasn’t just any human, she was perfect. Her soft skin and beautiful hair, spread across the ugly puke pink rug would be in his mind forever. He decided the more he learned about women the better.

Avalon joyous laughed carried him out of his thought. No woman had ever refused him and this one would be no different. But how to get her was the question. He stepped around the house and sat next to Avalon.

“I’m sorry if I scarred you off last night.” Just having it mentioned brought a rush of heat to the female speedster’s body.

“It’s okay.” She said simply.

“I… would you like to go for a walk? We could become reacquainted.” Pietro stood and offered a hand to Avalon. She looked at it as if to figure out what he had planned. The elementalist stood, taking his hand and allowed him to lead her to the small grove of trees that surrounded to swimming pond.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” Pietro said at last.

“It has. The last I remember you were shouting ‘girls are evil’ and running.” Avalon said with a little smile.

“Do you remember the vitamin incident? I can’t even look at the Flintstones with out feeling a little sick.”

“Funny I can’t look at a bottle of Flintstones vitamins without laughing.” Their conversation was cut short by Sasha running to Avalon, claiming she had a crisis and needed to Avalon’s help to solve it. ‘Just as well’ Pietro shrugged and walked deeper into the grove. He stopped dead at the pond. Getting a great idea, he ran back to John.

“Look at this, mate.” The fire wielder said happily, “I turned all the clay things into pottery.”

“That’s great. I need your help.” Pietro looked at the broken disks with disinterest.

Avalon sunk into her bed with a satisfied sigh as she read her favorite book for the billionth time. It didn’t matter how many times she read it, The Secret Garden was still magickal to her. She felt Lord Craven’s loneliness and Mary’s happiness when she makes her first friend and over whelming joy when Colin takes his first step. The knock on her door nearly sent Avalon through the roof. She was already half way through the book and it hadn’t even been an hour. She grabbed her book mark and slid it into the book and went to answer the door. No one was there. Avalon grumbled and turned to go back in her room when she noticed a note taped to her door she looked around the corridor again before taking it. The note read:

Come to the roof.

And it wasn’t signed. She was going to shrug it off when Avalon felt the stirring that had led to her pilgrimage to California. Avalon was curious. She walked down the hall and opened the door that lead to the attic. She moved quickly through the boxes and art supplies the Marley kept when she was redoing the art room and reached the door to the roof only to be met with more boxes. Nearly growling, Avalon pulled the boxes out of the way and yanked the door open. She raced up the last flight of stairs and burst out onto the roof landing she was met with another letter:

Go to the fire escape.

Oh, it was a scavenger hunt. Okay, she could play along a little longer. Avalon walked to the fire escape and looked around. Two stories down there was another message. Again, Avalon looked around to see if anyone was watching her. She shrugged and made her way down the metal stair-case. When she reached the note, it read:

Get all the way down.

That was a little odd. But for the sake of curiosity, she complied. Once on the ground she was met by a dozen red roses. Avalon wondered if they were the one’s she had given Lance but then noticed a card. It read:

Close you’re eyes

Putting herself against the wall, Avalon lightly closed her eyes. Some one was in front of her. The elementalist was about to open her eyes when a warm hand took hers and the person pressed a light kiss to her lips. ‘Oh… Pietro.’ She thought lightly. Considering their pervious kisses, this one was sweet, soft, chased. Pietro led her away from the house, pulling her close as the entered the grove. Why did Avalon trust him to lead her around with her eyes closed? Because she could open them at any time. And because she knew the grounds well enough to know exactly where they were. Pietro leaned into Avalon, his body pressed against her back.

“You can open your eyes now.” He whispered. Slowly opening her eyes, Avalon was greeted my two big surprises. One being a set table next to the swimming pond with a pristine white linen cloth and two place settings. Two being John in a tux, complete with tails.

“Good evening,” He said with a smile, “I’ll be your waiter. The wine selection tonight is Zinfandel or Cabernet.”

“Wine?” Avalon looked at Pietro, “You’re nineteen.”

“I was also born in Europe. Different rules.” He walked over to the table and pulled the chair out. The speedster looked at her expectantly. Avalon sighed and sat in the awaiting seat. Pietro scooted her in and took his own place. After procuring drinks, John wheeled out a cart with two metal serving trays.

“Could I have a little fire, Luv?” Pyro asked. Avalon’s eyes flashed reddy- orange and a small flicker of fire sat above the fire-wielder’s hand. John used it to light the food.

“You do like flambé, right?” He looked at the elementalist. She nodded and turned to Pietro.

“What is all of this about?”

“Our walk got cut short so I thought I’d treat you to diner.” He shrugged. John severed them both and wheeled the cart away.

He turned to them with a wink, “I think I’ll leave you two alone.” With that, the pyromaniac disappeared through the trees.

The dinner conversation was pretty topical, ranging from childhood memories to important things they had been doing over the years. Pietro brought up the dreaded topic of dating. Avalon widened her eyes momentarily before settling back against the chair.

“I thought you weren’t interested in dating.”

“Dating is okay.” Pietro looked at his hand playing with the stem of the wine glass. “I just have to find the right person.”

“Oh really,” Avalon knew a line when she heard one. He looked up at her suddenly, intense blue eyes filled with emotion.

“I’m sorry about what I said in the library. It was wrong of me to assume that you would compromise your integrity. You and me, we go way back. I would like to rekindle our friendship. It might turn into more, it might not.” After a short silence, Pietro reached forward and tentatively held Avalon’s hand.

“Why did you never show your power when we were younger?” he asked.

“I didn’t feel like I needed to. I had my sister and I liked playing with her. Besides, I knew I had it, no need to flaunt it.” She shrugged and took another sip of white wine. It tasted expensive, defiantly not like anything they had in the house. Not that anyone of them really drank. This had to be the first alcohol she’d had in months.

“How long have you been able to control the elements?”

“About fifteen years now. What is this, a date or an interrogation?” Avalon cocked her head to the side.

Pietro shrugged, “A date, if you prefer.”

“Why?” She leaned forward

“Well, in all honesty, I had intended this to be just dinner so we could get to be friends again. But I have noticed that you are defiantly not the person I remember. You’ve become an amazing woman.” Pietro gripped her hand a little tighter. Avalon was formulating a smart remark when something rustled the tree. She looked up figuring that it was one of her nieces, but it was far worse. A vampire landed in front of the table.

“Evening.” He said casually. Using their powers, both Pietro and Avalon stood facing the vampire with the table between them. The undead man fixed his cuffs like he had all the time in the world.

“This would be the part were you tell us what the hell you’re doing here.”

“It’s simple really. You’ve been little shit disturbers and we decided to get revenge. That’s all.” Avalon stood in front of the vampire and stared up into his eyes, thankful that her power muted his. A smart woman once said, “It’s hard to be intimidating while staring at someone’s forehead”. Wise words.

“And just how are you going to exact your revenge?”

“Just wait and see.” He laid his hand on her cheek trying to seep into her head.

“What the hell do you think your doing?” Pietro asked. Much to his surprise he was actually having fun and the vampire ruined it.

“Soon she will be under my control.” The dead man spoke with out looking at him. Avalon’s eye lids closed softly and she went limp in his arms. The vampire picked her up and turned to the angered young man.

“Have a pleasant evening. I surely will be coming back for you; I just need to deposit her with my master.” With that he turned to walk into the house. Pietro tried to grab the damsel from him, but the vampire pushed the speedster into a near by tree. With the nuisance out of the way, the man walked to the house in peace.

A/N-Sorry about the one sided-ness of this chapter. The next will be bulked with what happened to Rogue/Remy, Kitty/Lance, Wanda /Donovan during this time.