Chapter 1

Might As Well Make the Best of the Situation

It was lunch time at the Brotherhood house, everything was suprisingly quiet. Mystique and the boys were enjoying their lunch in the kitchen. Everyone was there, all except Toad and Wanda.

Lance looked around for the two missing occupants, then turned his attention to Wanda's brother, and asked, "Where's your sister?"

Pietro shrugged his shoulders as he shoveled in another mouthful chilli, "Dunno. Probably off hexing something somewhere."

"Or, she could be trying to avoid Toad today." chimed Mystique, "I would if I was being fawned over by a boy who runs away at the sight of a bar of soap."

"No kidding." Pietro snorted, "I don't mind the little guy and all, but that's only cause he isn't my roommate. If he was, then that would be a whole nother story. "

"What? You afraid that some of Toad's habits would rub off on ya?" Lance chuckled.

"I would rather chew off my own foot than let him touch me for more than 5 seconds at a time."

"Speaking of Toad..." Fred leaned back to peer out of the kitchen doorway, "I think I hear him comin' down the stairs."

"Ya sure it ain't Wanda?"

Fred listened carefully to the sound of rapid foot steps, speeding down the stairs, and heard the familiar sounds of a high pitched girly scream, "Yep. It's Toad."

Everyone nodded and continued to eat, ignoring Toad as best as they could. They found Wanda hexing him on a regular basis to be the norm now and days. Since Toad always got back up and continued to woo her, despite all of his injuries, none of them bothered themselves to worry about him.

"God! You'd think the little nut would get the frickin' hint and leave my sister alone!"

"He likes her." Fred stated.

"Liking her is fine and all, but he's flat out stalking her. If he keeps this up, then she's going to snap, and we're going to be down one team member."

Lance areched an eyebrow, "And you care why?"

"Having an ugly guy around makes my dashing good looks stand out on the battlefield."

"Wow, Pi. Just wow."

"What?"

"You're vanity knows no boundries."

"Nope. Not a one."

CRASH!

Mystique slammed her hands ontop of the table and stood up violently, "THAT'S IT!" she stormed out of the kitchen, with the rest of the Brotherhood on her heels. "Toad! I've had had enough! You're going to stop this ri-" she stopped in mid yell when a hex bolt nearly made contact with her head. She dropped down, Lance and Pietro leapt out of the way, but Fred took the brunt of it, sending him flying back into the other room, "WANDA!"

Wanda was throwing hex bolts left and right, trying to hit the wall hopping Toad. She was furious at the little mutant for not leaving her alone again, so much, that she didn't care about the safey of others.

Toad was all over the place, dodging them, "Baby cakes! Gah! Can't we talk about this? Agh! Please?"

"NO! I'M TIRED OF TALKING TO YOU! YOU ANNOY THE LIVING PISS OUT OF ME!"

"But, baby- Agh!" he dropped down to the floor and back flipped onto the opposite wall, "I can't help it! I'm in love with ya. Yikes! I do anything for you, yo! I don't care what it is" he hopped back down on the floor about 5 feet away from her, "I'll do it, just so that I can have your love in return, sweetums."

"I DON'T WANT YOUR LOVE, TOAD! I JUST WANT YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"But, baby... I just want to be the perfect man for ya."

"Grrrr I don't want you be any kind of man for me." she huffed, "Sometimes I think everyone would be better off if you were a girl instead! At least then you'd take a shower more than once a month!" she put all of her pent up emotions into one gaint hex bolt. It went from it's normal lightning blue color to a inky black.

Mystique saw the bolt, she noticed that something was different about it, and her eyes widened, "Wanda! Don't you dare throw that!"

But it was too late, she threw it dead on at Toad with all of her might, and it hit him with enough force to put him through a wall and into the next room.

"TOAD!" screamed everyone and raced to where his body laid.

"Are you okay, man?" huffed Lance.

They all peered into the hole and watched with horror a danty hand emerge, shaking out of the hole, followed by the body of a young girl, and who was wearing Toad's clothes. She looked up with a dazed expression, they could see that she was pretty much a female version of their allie. No one moved as she came into full view and watched as she fell foward onto her hands.

She looked back up at their shocked expressions and spoke in an annoyed high feminem voice, "Will you guys quit starin' at me? It's startin' to creep me-" her eyes widened when she finally realized that she was no longer speaking in her male voice, "What the hell?" she shot up, grasping at her throat, "Why do I sound like a girl?"

Pietro raced upstairs, grabbed one of his hand mirrors from his room, and held it up for her to see, "This could be why."

Her eyes widened and she snatched the mirror from his hands. She touched the features of her face, not willing to believe what she was seeing. Then she pulled the collar of her shirt forward and looked down, blushing like crazy.

"I have boobs? I have boobs! Why do I have boobs!" she stood up, catching her pants that were now too big for her before the fell to the ground, but not before seeing what she was also lacking, "Eek! No. No. No. No! This can't be happening! I've been turned into a girl! How?" she looked around at the group, all eyes turned to Wanda, "Wanda? H-How did you-"

"Her powers alter time and reality, Toad." spoke Mystique softly, "It's possible that she was able to change your physic through sheer desire."

She blinked at her mentor, "You mean she wants me to be lesbians with her?"

Pietro appeared by her side and smacked her upside her head, "No, you idiot! She means, that my sister wished you were a girl, so that you would quit stalking her."

She looked down at the floor in shame, then looked back at Wanda, "Wanda... I'm sorry."

Wanda sneered at him and turned away.

"Wanda! Wait! Please, change me back? I'll leave you alone forever if that's what you want. Just, please... Change me back." Toad felt her face turn red from embarrassment as everyone kept on staring at her.

"No."

"What?" her head shot up, "B-But why?"

"Because I can't. At least not right now. I've never done anything like this before and if I try to force change you back, it could do a lot more damage to you than I've already done now. You're just going to have to wait, until I do enough research, and feel comfortable enough with my powers to do it. So for now, you might as well get use to being a girl."

Toad's jaw dropped and she looked desperately to Mystique, who simply replied, "She's right, Toad."

Toad's face grew hot and redder, "This sucks!" she leapt up onto the stairwells banister and up to her room, slamming the door behind her.

There was a long awquard silence amongst the group.

"Man, he makes an 'ugly' girl. I think I preferred him better when he was a guy." said Pietro, who finally broke the silence.

Lance walked over and punched the silver haired mutant in the shoulder.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for?"

"You're such a douche bag, Pietro."

"What? What did I say?"

"Knock it off, you two." barked Mystique, she then turned her attention on Wanda, "Well?"

"Well what?" Wanda asked.

"Aren't you going to get to studying on how to turn Toad back?"

"Pfft Yeah. When I feel like it. Maybe living a few days as a girl will teach the little slime ball not to follow me around like a lost puppy."

"I highly doubt that." Mystique crossed her arms in front of her chest, "He'll more than likely come knocking at your door more than normal and keep on pestering you, until you change him back. You think that he was annoying as a boy. Well, I'm sure that you'll be in for a big surprise."

"What? You're saying that he can be even more annoying as a girl?"

"If he puts his mind to it, he can make anything possible. Now upstairs to your room and start studying. I'll call my friend Agetha to help you." Wanda tried to protest but Mystique put her foot down and pointed to the stairs, "Go. Now!" she watched Wanda stomp up the stairs and listened to the trail of curses, "Oh, and before I forget... No more powers, until you can confidently change Toad back into a boy."

Wanda spun around and leaned over the railing, "What? You've got to be kidding me? You're grounding me?"

Mystique placed her hand on her hip and glared up at the girl, "Do I look like I'm in a joking mood?"

"This is bull shit!" Wanda ran the rest of the way up the stairs and slammed her own bedroom door.

Pietro walked up behind his mentor and asked, "I think you're being a little too hard on her, Mistique."

"Just because she's you're father's daughter, it doesn't mean she gets to be treated like a princess nor you a prince." she turned and faced the rest of the boys, "That goes for the rest of you too. I am going to have order in this house, one way or another. Now after we all finish eating our lunch, all of you are going to start cleaning this house and make it look presentable."

"But-" they all started to protest.

She gave them a glare that sent shivers down all of their spines, "I grounded Wanda, I can do much more worse to all of you."

"Yes, ma'am." they said and quickly dissappeared back into the kitchen.

She smiled and chuckled lightly, "Good to know that I'm finally being taken serious around here." she then made her way to the telephone and called up her friend Agatha. The conversation last a good 30 minutes, before she said her goodbyes, and hung up the phone. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "I'm going to have a lot my on my hands than I thought. " she moved to the stairs and began to decend, "Well, I might as well make the best of the situation while I wait for the results." she first went to Wanda's door, she opened it without knocking, and found the girl laying on her bed staring at the ceiling, "Agatha will be here in a couple of days. She said that the spell you casted upon Toad is going to take a couple of months to break."

Wanda sat up and hugged her knees, "A couple of months? Why?"

"Well, for one. You are the one who cast the spell, so no else can break it but you. Two, you are still a novice with your powers and it is going to take some time to get you at the level you need to be to do it. And three, Agatha said that you don't have the books you require for the spell, so she has to go and find them for you."

"Why can't I go find them?"

"Because all of the books that are required are in the library of her order and they do not allow inexperienced children to check them out."

"Inexperience? But I-"

"Just because you can throw a couple of hex bolts does not make you a high class witch. Now, you may as well enjoy your freedom while you wait for her to arrive, because when she gets here, you won't have any for a long time."

Wanda glowered at her mentor, "This is unfair! Why should I be treated like common criminal?"

"I find the irony in what you just said to be quite amusing. But..." she paused for a moment, waiting to see the change in Wanda's expression, "If you do show some progress and show that you are trying, I may loosen your shackles a bit."

"How loose are we talking about?"

"Enough for you to go on dates with boys. Do we have a deal?"

Wanda sighed and nodded her head, "Okay. Deal."

"Good." Mystique smiled and left her room to go to Toads. This time she knocked, "Toad? It's Mystique. May I come in?"

She heard movement from inside the room, soon the door opened in front of her, and the young girl, who was once a boy was standing right in front of her.

Toad looked up at her mentor through her bangs, "What's up? Is Wanda going to change me back?"

"It's going to take some time."

"Exactly how long?"

"A couple of months maybe, but it all depends on whether or not Wanda is capable by then."

"Great." she started to go back inside the rooom, but Mystique put her hand on Toad's shoulder.

Mystique looked at the child with a gentleness that she had never seen before, "She isn't punishing you, Toad. She just needs time to get her powers to be strong enough and to get herself confident enough to cast the spell."

"Kay... Soooo What do I do until then, yo? The kids at school are gonna definately tell that I ain't a boy anymore. I mean... They just take one look at my face and see it's not me."

"Don't worry. I've already figured that part out."

"Really?" Toad lifted her head up with interest, but then he cringed when he saw an evil smile cross his mentors lips, "Um... Mystique... What's the the smile? It's kinda spooky, yo."

She started backing away, but Mystique had a firm grip on the girls shoulder, and walk slowly pulling her out of her room, "Like I said, it's going to be some time. So, we all might as well make the best of the situation." she steered Toad to the bathroom, "Wait here." she dissapeared for a bit, then came back with a towl, some scented bath soaps, wash clothes, and shampoos. She put them in Toad's arms, "Go and take a bath. A really long one."

"H-How come?"

"We're going clothes shopping and you need to smell clean if you're going to try on clothes."

"What? But it ain't time for my monthly shower!"

"Normally I would ignore that, but under these circumstances..." her smile spread even more, "You're going to have to shower on a daily basis."

"WHAT? HELL NO!"

"Now. Now. Is that any way for a young lady to talk?"

"I ain't no lady!"

"Not yet at least."

Her eyes widened with horror, "No! No! No! No!"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes." she shoved Toad into the bathroom, "As I said, we might as well make the best of the situation. I've always wanted a little girl that I could dress up as a lady."

"Then go get Rogue or Wanda to do it! Leave me out of it!"

"Oh, I would, but you see... My little Rougy is with her X-men and there is a certain restraining order on me over there. And Wanda... Well, she is Magneto's daughter, and I have no power over making her do something that she doesn't want to do. But you on the other hands... You are a poor orphan, whom I've graciously taken into my care, and it is up to me to make sure that you have the best things in life."

"What? Then why the hell ya didn't do that when I was a boy?"

"Mmmm Maybe it's because my motherly instincts hadn't kicked in yet. Now, go, my dear child and bath yourself so that we may have our first girls day out."

"No!"

"If you don't... Then I'll just come in there and bath you myself."

Toad's jaw dropped, "You wouldn't!"

"You want to test me on this?" Mystique took a step in.

"Okay! Okay! OKAY! I'll take a bath! Just don't come in here." Toad threw the some on the ground, pushed Mystique out, slammed the door, and locked it.

Mystique used every ounce of her power not to laugh. "Ooh. This is going to be fun."