The explosion jolted Mortimer awake and he sat up - completely disoriented. A glance at the window told him that daylight was just barely retreating over the horizon and he'd only laid down for a nap. After exchanging bewildered glances with Forge, Mort snatched his shirt up that he'd been using it as a pillow and pulled it back on. The earth was rocking underneath them and there was only one mutant Mort knew who could do that.

Rather than feel elated, his stomach twisted with fear. Why were they coming for him now? Wraith must have done something - he must have . . .

An alarm blared loudly, causing both Forge and Mort to swear and cover their ears. Mortimer was surprised to find that his weren't bleeding by the time the aggravating noise cut off and thankfully ended in a burst of static. His heart was pounding hard as he looked at Forge again.

"The Brotherhood?" Forge guessed. His eyes had dark shadows beneath them. Mort remembered falling into an exhausted sleep last night, but he didn't know if Forge had.

"Yeah, probably," he sighed, wondering if he should look for a place to hide.

"Oh," Forge looked a little vexed. Mortimer felt a stab of sympathy; he'd obviously thought it was the Xmen. Maybe before Fred squashed him, Mort could convince the Brotherhood to take Forge home?

"I was actually just about to wake you," Forge started to explain, but he didn't get a chance. Something silver had darted past then circled around to stand in front of their cell. Pietro.

Trembling, Mortimer looked at the floor and tried to resist the urge to crawl under his bunk. Tense moments passed.

"Well? Aren't you glad to see me at least?"

Mort felt a jolt in his chest as his reality shifted. "W-What?" he blurted, looking at Maximoff in alarm.

"Me. You know, the guy who's going to get you out - again? I'd like to say I'm surprised you wound up here while I was gone, but . . . I guess I'm not." Pietro put his hands on his hips, staring at him flatly. Right. This would normally be the part where Mort cringingly expressed his gratitude.

He swallowed and clenched his fists, a little furious. Not at himself, for once. "H-How long have you been back?"

"Hey, this was the first available opportunity I had. Figured I'd let you sit tight for a while. Didn't miss me too much, did you?" Maximoff leaned against the wall. Chaos was still happening below, apparently directing all the MRD's attention. Mort felt his stomach drop at the implication of Pietro's words, but it was Forge who answered for him.

"Available opportunity? I thought you were fast enough to fit anything into your schedule," the inventor said. His voice was colder than Mort had ever thought possible coming from him. Flushing a little, he looked at Forge and shook his head in warning.

Pietro grinned like a cat. "You've been trapped with an Xman for all this time, Mort? Okay, now I do feel a little guilty for waiting." He became serious. "If you're ready to get out of this place, and I know you are, I hope you're prepared to make friendly with a couple new recruits. They'll be coming home with us tonight, so try to stay out of their way, huh?"

Now was his chance to salvage things. "What about him, Pietro?" he said in as neutral a tone as he could manage, gesturing to Forge. "We should break him out and dump him with the Xmen." Mort was very careful not to look at the man's expression. "Wolverine would owe you another favor."

Pietro paused in rapidly keying in the code to their cell to give Forge a glance over. "No, I don't think so. I like the idea of an Xman rotting away in here too much. The Xmen want him back? Let them go against all their little morals and break in here themselves." He finished the code and the beams disappeared.

Mort panicked and backpedaled toward Forge, grabbing the man's arm before Pietro could whisk him away. Maximoff made no move toward him and stood in the hall bemused, one hand still stretched out.

"Uh, okay . . . I said no, Mortimer."

Mort swallowed, still not letting go. "Come on, don't leave him here, Pietro. We can't."

Pietro stared at him and then sighed sliding a hand over his face. "Yes, we can. And furthermore, we will. He isn't your concern, Toad. What is your concern is how many toothbrushes you're going to use up by the time you finish cleaning every single floor of our new headquarters until they sparkle. It's a nice place by the way, three bathrooms and bedrooms for all. You'll like it. Now stop bothering the nice Xman, and come over here."

Mortimer only tightened his hold. He couldn't leave Forge here. He just couldn't. It didn't matter if Wraith tortured him tonight or tomorrow night or for the rest of his life; he could not leave him here.

At the same time, he was entirely aware of how stupid he was being. Freedom was only a step away right now, and he was helplessly standing still.

"Mort, go with them," Forge was saying lowly. "It's okay, I'm actually-"

"No," Mort said sharply. "I won't." There it was, the anger. Nothing to squash down anymore in the hopes that it would help the both of them get out of here.

"Toad, I have no time for noble idiocy right now. You have ten seconds to get your ass over here or I will leave you."

"Well go ahead and count!" Mort yelled at him. "You're a - a dick to just leave people in here with f-fucking John Wraith and guards who do whatever he tells them to --"

"What are you talking ab-"

"Shut up, Pietro! Just shut up, okay?! You ditched me here like it was nothing! So maybe I don't want to go with you anymore, huh?! Maybe I'd rather stay here and know what's going to happen - instead of getting left behind again to wonder!"

Pietro's face took on a range of emotions, the last of which was anger. He looked away, ending the show. "Spare me the guilt trip, Mort. You want someone to feel sorry for your own stupidity? Well, the village idiot's standing right next to you. Hope you enjoy each other."

A flash of silver and white, then Pietro was gone. But not before he'd palmed the security barrier back on.

"He's not the village idiot!" Mort called after him, outraged. "He's smarter than you! And he dresses better too!"

Dubiously, Forge looked down at his yellow and blue uniform. "Uh, really?"

"Well, you are definitely smarter," Mort conceded. "But he does have better fashion sense. I just wanted to get him where it hurt the most."

"Oh, alright." Looking a little stunned at the turn of events, Forge turned his gaze to the barrier as Mort sat down on the bunk near him, disconsolate.

"So . . . How's the escape plan coming?"

"That's what I was going to wake you up about. I've figured it out."

"That's okay. I don't think after today Wraith'll have much time to -" Mort blinked. "You did what?"

"All figured out. Better yet, Pietro put even more power into the barrier than there was before. You can tell by the speed of the cycle - it's much faster." Forge sounded cheerful. He started to detach his metal hand at the wrist. "Usually the beams deflect particles if they aren't good conductors, but flesh is an excellent conductor. Metal is an even better one - I figure that's why we didn't get any silverware with our food.

"Since the beams are programmed to give warning shots depending on mutant tolerance of pain, they'll use more and more energy to get to the level that an obstructing mutant can't tolerate. The problem is getting a conductor to stay in place that can tolerate anything." Forge grinned at Mort. "That's where your slime comes in."

Mort looked at him and then at the beams.

"It's okay if I've lost you," Forge told him. "This is usually where my rambling is met with blank stares."

"Uh no . . . I actually get it. All the cells in our area will be affected so when our barrier sucks up all the power and explodes, everyone will be able to get out?"

Surprised, Forge stared at him. "Um. Yeah."

"But won't your hand get fried?"

"Maybe, but the hand is replaceable. Interchangeable in fact. I'm my own action figure!" Forge stated proudly.

Mort grinned back at him, standing up. "Then what the heck are we waiting for dude? Let's get out of here!" He spat at the ceiling above the barrier, watching as the slime dripped down and hardened. Forge put the metal hand into the rubberizing goop and then swung it until the beams caught the metal appendage and held it there. He was right; the electricity seemed unable to release the piece of alloy in its grasp and Mortimer looked up in fascination as first the lights flickered uncontrollably, then the bars of the power cells began to wane.

It was getting hard to see past their own barrier due to the sudden brightness of the overworked energy beams.

There were echoing shouts over the intensifying whine of raised voltage, and suddenly Forge flung himself at Mortimer, pushing both to the floor of their cell and shielding Mort with his body.

The bang was frightening enough to make Mort flinch against Forge, but it was quick. He took a peek and saw first a metal hand on the ground and then the portal to their cell completely barren of the energy that had kept them inside.

"Hooray for cheap government spending," Forge rambled, helping him up. "I knew they'd cut corners. Clearly their electrician didn't put in enough power lines!"

Down the corridor, other mutants were hesitantly stepping out - noticing their new chance at freedom. "Come on!" Mortimer shouted, waving at them. "Shake a leg and move out while the Brotherhood's still got the MRD busy!" He could hear the explosions and gunfire at least, though Dominic had ceased to shake the earth beneath them. He grabbed Forge, as the man carefully picked up his charged hand with the spare glove.

Mortimer had the advantage of knowing these corridors more than he'd ever wanted to; he hadn't always been stuck in the same cell upon capture. Still holding onto Forge, he led the way towards the guard staircases which would most likely be unlocked. Fortunately they were. As the escapees passed other cell blocks, some of the mutants used their powers to fry the controls and free their fellow prisoners.

And on the first floor, there was still chaos. Mort saw Neena backed into a corner, firing with one weapon - obviously her luck was off today. He spat slime into the face of an MRD officer to her left, giving her a way to duck out. Her look of surprise and thanks as she maneuvered free of them was all Mort had time to take in, before he and Forge rounded the next corner toward the exits.

They surprised a line of reinforcement guards who stopped in their tracks. At the same time the escaping mutants skidded across the cement floor to slow down in the face of the new threat. The huge door was already sliding down on its tracks to trap them inside. Knowing they had no time and feeling recklessly brave, Mortimer grabbed Forge around the waist and jumped - clearing the air over the officers as they lined up to intimidate the rest of the escapees back into holding cells. He let Forge go and slammed his fist against the door controls, jamming it before it could continue its descent.

One mutant girl tossed a handful of glowing yellow energy bombs at the officers before they could fire and others joined in, breaking the MRD's already shaky line apart. They looked like they had things well under control.

Forge grabbed Mort's wrist, pulling him outside into the courtyard. They were in luck; this was the area the Brotherhood had entered and the perimeter fence was warped and torn open in one corner.

Making sure he didn't lose sight of Forge was no trouble as they ran to freedom. The man still had not - would not - let go of Mortimer's arm.

* * *

The city was in chaos. Fires started by mutant powers and by MRD weaponry were everywhere to be seen, as well as broken glass and rubble. They had lost at least half of their prisoners at the main facility and were scrambling to make amends - rounding up mutants whether or not they were registered. If they were on the street at this hour, then they were as good as criminals.

Mortimer watched the street warily for any sign of officers as Forge made his call. Amazing, really. City looked like it was falling apart around their ears, but the payphones were all completely undamaged. And still charging more money than was sane.

Forge had been forced to make a collect call - which Wolverine didn't sound too happy about, judging by the yelling coming out of the receiver and by Forge's expression as he held it about a foot away from his ear. Mort grinned sympathetically at him and turned back to his task of street-watching.

Finally, Forge hung up and exhaled shakily. "Well, he's gonna kick my ass, but we've got a ride." He came over to stand by Mortimer. "I told him you were coming with us. I mean, to join us. If that's okay with you. You don't have to if-if you don't want - but I figured you'd want at least one night in a real bed. The food's pretty good too."

"No Chinese food for us tonight, huh?" Mort smiled up at him.

"Eh. Not craving anything with grease right now. Though I could still go for soup."

"Man, what is it about you and - ACK!" Moving swiftly, Mortimer pressed Forge against the wall of the alley behind the phone booth, flattening him. A Prowler was trundling by, scanning the street for signs of their kind. He wasn't sure what would follow it. More MRD troops perhaps?

"Ow," Forge complained, catching his breath back. Mort looked up.

"I hurt you?"

"Not your fault, there was just a brick sticking out of the wall. Weird how some of the older buildings around here stay up no matter what happens to the city. The new ones are made to be really attractive, but the metal really doesn't -"

"Forge?"

"What?"

"Shhh. Prowlers and stuff, come on?" Mortimer reminded him. He was still pressed against Forge, though the necessity for that had probably long since passed. He was sure he could hear footsteps tracking the Prowler. Or maybe it was just the man's heart beating.

"Right, I know. I tend to talk too much when I'm nervous. Wolverine said he'd meet us here, but he knows how to avoid the MRD so he might wait a while, or do something freaky like step out of the shadows. There was this one time -"

"Forge . . ."

"Sorry, sorry I know. I can't shut up. Nervous habit," Forge apologized. He leaned nervously forward against Mort, trying to see the street. Mortimer pressed him back gently, looking up at him. He knew at least one way to fix such a problem.

"I - I think he said it would take five minutes, maybe ten because the van was having some kind of transmission error last I was working on it and I don't know if - mmph . . ."

Forge found his lips captured somehow by Mort's and suddenly he didn't feel the need to ramble any longer. There weren't even any thoughts in his head to ramble about. This was in fact very nice. Kissing when nervous wasn't that bad of a habit to develop, was it?

He closed his eyes, wrapping arms around Mortimer's waist. No . . . this was a habit he could definitely get addicted to.

END