The rain was pattering on the roof, a heavy layer of white noise. It filled the air with the scent of earth and dead worms, although it was hardly noticeable compared to the pollution. The window was open at her insistence. She felt trapped in the room, even though it was only the second morning there. Toad had spent all of yesterday doing complicated things on a number of machines she didn't even know what were called. They looked like the kind of machines that had lots of letters and numbers in their names. Complicated. Apparently they had yielded some important information regarding something or other, though, because he had been gone for a few hours, on what was, apparently, none of her business. She had used the occasion to do some catching up on major world events the last four years, and upon finding that nothing of particular interest had happened, had turned to googling the X-Men. Most major news papers were fairly negative to the group. From what she could gather, they were a group of mutant youth brainwashed by some old, evil mutant into thinking that they were better than humans, and who used their powers destructively and to further mutant supremacy. A little more digging, however yielded some more positive reports. Allegedly they had on several occasions helped and saved the lives of humans. But the internet, being what it was, had varied opinions on that. She found a blog that had calculated the accumulated cost of all the destruction of private and communal property that had been caused by the X-Men's involvement. She found nothing posted by any of them anywhere, though. She found that odd. Surely, if mutants had one channel that would connect them to other mutants around the world and allow them to tell humans about them, surely that would be the internet? Surely they would use that to stop the hatred and discrimination? Apparently not. Or maybe she just wasn't looking closely enough. She scratched her chin thoughtfully, and began to peruse yet another anti X-Men blog.

A sudden noise at the door made her jump. There was a strange sound coming from it, like something metallic scratching in the lock. It sounded, at a guess, like someone poking something metallic into the lock and wriggling it about. It did not, however, sound like someone with a key. She quickly shut the laptop, and moved quietly, very quietly, to a completely empty corner of the room. She stood still and concentrated on making any and all light pass straight through her. She waited like that for a minute, maybe two. Then she heard an angry voice mumbling through the door, and a loud splintering noise as it was forcibly opened. She held her breath.

The first think that struck Claudia about the woman who with an oddly sheepish expression quietly entered was how young she looked. By her guess the woman was a few years younger than herself; just a girl. The second thing that struck her was the skin tight leather uniform she was wearing, decorated with tiny, embroidered Xs and badly concealed underneath a long coat. The girl was very pretty, with large brown eyes, clear skin and long brown hair with white bangs. She wandered over to the closed laptop, and opened it. At that point, Claudia walked slowly, quietly towards her, and picked up a lamp from the night stand.

.

They had come upon him whilst he was talking to Mags on the phone, that was how they'd managed to surprise him. You didn't not give the Master of Magnetism your full attention. He had been detailing for Toad what methods he was authorized to use when it came to dealing with the X-men, when his phone had suddenly been sliced in four, and three ugly, parallel gashes appeared on his hand. He had run then, naturally. He had run through streets and climbed buildings and hopped from one rooftop to the next, all the while trying to confuse Wolverine's sense of smell. Cyclops had been with him as well, but he didn't have the stamina to keep up, nor the daring to use his laser beam eyes as openly as he would have to if he were to shoot Toad down. He did get away, eventually, having lost the X-Men. At that point, though, he was limping, having gained three new gashes in his thigh, and he was half way across town from the motel. Wincing slightly in pain, he started the long way back.

"Wot the 'ell is this?"

He had just come to the motel, gingerly stepping over wooden splinters in the doorway. Claudia was sitting cross legged on her bed, laptop in front of her, reading something or rather. On the other bed, his bed, sat a young girl who looked disturbingly familiar. She had a piece of duct tape over her mouth, and her hands were bound behind her back. Her eyes had been staring sourly at the albino across the room from her, but at his voice they turned to him, widening in terror. She made muffled sounds behind her improvised gag. Claudia looked up, a tinge of guilt in her pale, gray eyes. She bit her lip, looking uncertain. Apparently she hadn't expected him to sound angry, though what she then did expect was a mystery to him.

"Uhm..." she began eloquently. "Look, she broke in and was going through your stuff! And her uniform looks X-Menish. What was I supposed to do, let her?" She closed the laptop, and started fiddling nervously with her nails. She lowered her eyes from his, opting to stare at the floor to her left. The other girl, Rogue, as Toad recognized her as, looked a little confused, though still scared. She obviously recognized him from that... thing a few years ago. He shuddered at the thought. He hadn't quite forgiven Sabretooth for that in his mind, although it was by no means the worst he'd done, whether to human or mutant*.

"Yeah. What'd she have found, yer dirty browsin' 'istory? All the important data is safe and locked away, girlie, she wouldn't 'ave gotten anyfin' useful."

Rogue made a muffled sound, the meaning of which Toad could only guess at. He chose to assume the young mutant agreed with him, and possibly also complimented him on his eloquence and good looks. His assumptions, sadly, were seldom correct. He ran a webbed hand through his short, spiky hair. Fuck. They had to do something about the girl. He was not taking her back to headquarters again, not after what happened last time. She might be one of their enemies, but she didn't deserve that, not again.

"You 'aven't accidentally told 'er anyfin' important, 'ave you?" he said with more hope in his voice than he suspected he was entitled to.

"Of course not. I'm not that stupid, you know." Toad made a face as if to object, and she quickly continued. "I haven't told her anything, or shown her anything. I knocked her out, taped her up and let her sit there. All she's done is throw me dirty glances every time I check on her."

"Good. So, as you're new to this, I'm gonna give ya the chance to make this right. What do you suggest we do with 'er?" He said this last part suggestively, grinning at the frightened captive.

.

When Wolverine and Cyclops finally found Rogue, a few hours after the Professor reported having lost his psychic link with her, she was tied to a kitchen chair in the middle of a field. On her head was a crude replica of the helmet Magneto wore to block out telepaths. A piece of duct tape covered her hands, others bound her wrists and ankles to the chair. Stuck to her hair with a lump of hardened slime was an envelope, containing a complicated set of clues and codes. It was marked "Top secret Brotherhood location" in red marker. When they later got Beast to run it through the computers and figure it out, he eventually found some coordinates for a deserted barn in Alabama. The X-Men were not quite sure what to make of this, and what Rogue could tell them threw little light upon the matter.

.

They had left the mainland in a hurry after dumping Rogue. Toad had gotten a hold of Magneto again, and had told him that their target had been working along with the X-Men, in what was presumably a set up. He had ordered them back to the island, and they had obeyed. As they flew, Claudia looked out of the window, admiring the sea. It was consistently blue, and the sun reflecting off it made her eyes hurt. She saw a few sea gulls perched on a lonely rock, and took this to mean they were getting close. It had been a long flight, and a silent one, at least when it came to conversation. There had been an odd exchange of looks when Toad first entered the motel room, she had noticed. The girl, Rogue, apparently, had looked terrified at the sight of him. It couldn't be his odd looks, Claudia was certain of that. Surely a member of the X-Men would be used to such oddities. She had seen on a blog the the X-Men were rumored to have as much as two members who were both blue and furry. No, it had definitely been recognition. She would definitely have to ask them about it when they landed and the damned copter stopped drilling into her brain with sound.

Author's note: I'm trying to cut back on the words somewhat and somehow. Not sure how well I'm doing, but I've noticed I used those a bit too much. Also, my chapters have been getting shorter. Good/bad? Tell me? Just trying to concentrate the action a bit more. And yeah, I wussed out on adding Gambit. Was unsure what he'd do to the dynamic, and I'm also not really that familiar with him. I could probably write his dialog, but I'm not interested enough to research anything but his beard. That is cool, though.

*For details see my Rogue & Sabretooth oneshot Untouchable. Toad's reasoning might make less sense if you don't at least skim it, I think.