Disclaimer: Owned by Marvel, not me. Written for pleasure, not profit.
Rating: Adults only, contains graphic sexual activity.
Warnings: Sex, bodily fluids, minor violence, bondage of sorts.
Big thanks to: akovarwrfan for a thorough beta (kindly consider all remaining mistakes to be mine alone) and to st_aurafina for cups of phlegm-destroying tea.
Summary: After the battle at the Statue of Liberty, Toad is the sole remaining member of the Brotherhood of Mutants. Trying to survive and thrive, he battles the X-Men and is involved in an unexpected exchange of words and deeds with Cyclops.
Having a secret base all to himself was fun. Having a secret base full of cool toys where none of his fellow mutants were telling to stop playing with that spider right now and fuel the chopper, you useless little worm, strung out the fun for longer. Toad had spent weeks sitting around with nothing to do but play with his machines and wank off to the porn channels that Magneto's super satellite array could fortunately pick up. He had no-one to order him around, no-one to tell him to improve his mind, no-one making life-threatening, crazy plans that he had to carry out, no-one there at all. It was almost enough to make him pick up the satphone and call up women named Tawnee or Candee at $5.99 a minute. Of course, Magneto hadn't bought the "mutant recruitment" excuse last time and, when he escaped prison, he probably wouldn't appreciate hearing it again.
Toad wasn't very impressed with the brotherly aspect of the Brotherhood. It wasn't really Magneto's fault that his plan had completely failed and he was locked up, but Magneto had always been much more interested in the grand speeches than the contingency plans. Toad considered himself to be a realistic pessimist, and he felt quite disappointed in himself for believing the rhetoric rather than letting his immense interest in his own survival take the driver's seat. Mystique, of course, had not only survived but profited from the disaster. She wasn't in a position to acknowledge her former colleagues, let alone lend them considerable sums of untraceable cash. Toad had no idea exactly where Sabretooth was hiding. Toad liked to think he was off in snowy Canada living out his little crush on that hairy X-Man. Toad sniggered. Maybe those two had set up a little cottage somewhere, and were baking each other cookies in between claw fights.
Unfortunately, the problem with a secret island base was that helicopter fuel is very expensive and Magneto hadn't leave his wallet lying around when he was dragged off to his plastic prison. Toad liked living at a distance from everyone else, but he couldn't stay on the island base if he didn't get some cash to keep things running. There was only enough fuel for a few more trips to the mainland, and the gasoline for the generator was nearly gone, too. He was never going to run short of food, not with Magneto's generally apocalyptic mindset, but Magneto had kept the generators running with his powers, and no degree of willpower was going to grant Toad those abilities. The abilities he did have, though, were perfectly sufficient to rob an armoured truck.
Toad squatted neatly on top of a streetlight that overlooked the deserted courtyard of low-rent restaurants, his jacket hood pulled up over his head. He had spent a long night, scouting the area as the evening diners trickled erratically in and out. He'd observed the evening guards' pickup, but there were too many people around then, so he'd decided to wait for the early morning pickup of the night's takings. The night had been long and chilly, but the thought of the large number of restaurant owners dropping their cash into the deposit box had made it seem stupid to mug just one when he could soon have it all. He'd almost enjoyed watching people go about their business, knowing they wouldn't see him.
Finally, as the sun rose, the armoured van pulled up and two burly men exited the vehicle. One stood guard on the pavement as the other unlocked the night depository and began collecting the bags of cash. Toad rocked on the balls of his feet and waited patiently. The collection guard closed up the deposit box and walked the takings to the back of the van, and the hidden guard inside opened the doors for him. At that instant, Toad sprang from the streetlight to the roof of the van, then onto the shoulders of the guard standing lookout. The man shrieked, stumbled to his knees and pulled his gun, just as Toad had hoped. He raised the gun, caught sight of Toad's long green face, and froze for a critical second; Toad's long, gummy tongue wrenched the weapon from his hand.
Toad leapt back to the roof of the van, flicked the gun into his hand, and pointed the stolen weapon at the guards.
"Out of the van! On the ground! Now! Or you'll see the rest of my powers!"
The men scrambled to obey, disappointingly fast.
"Throw your guns into the truck!"
Again, they obeyed, and Toad jumped down between the two men at the back of the truck and grabbed them by the scruff of the neck.
"See that car over there? Load it up, boys." He glared at the third guard, who was lying flat on the ground, staring up at Toad with revulsion. "Get up. Help them."
The guards quickly threw the bags of cash into the car that Toad had parked nearby, then looked back at him in dread.
"Don't – are you going to kill us?"
Toad looked at them contemplatively as they shook with terror. It was fun to have them fear him, but he couldn't really work up any enthusiasm for doing them harm. But he didn't want to hang around with them gaping at him for one second longer. They were pathetic, and it would be downright embarrassing to have their faces on the evening news next to his. He leapt into the air, slammed two heads together and kicked the third man backwards into the open van door. All three slipped to the ground, unconscious. Toad slung them into the back of the van, slammed the door and loped over to his stolen car.
Magneto had, to Toad's knowledge, more than a dozen hidden bases in North America alone. The north-eastern USA base was in the Adirondacks, and Toad sped north along the highway straight for the mountain base. The robbery had netted, at a quick glance, more than $50,000, and his getaway had been clean. He turned up the radio and danced merrily in his seat as he drove. Toad planned to dump the money at the base, then it would be no trouble to find one of Magneto's many illicit contacts to get hold of fuel, spare parts, maybe a few computer games, even a cheap – or maybe an expensive! – prostitute before he headed back … he was set. And when Magneto escaped, Toad could show him how well he'd kept up the bases, and prove he was more valuable than anyone would have thought.
His pleasant daydream came to an abrupt end as he realised that he had turned onto a steep, isolated side road that he hadn't planned on taking, and that his was the only vehicle around. That telltale telepathic fuzziness was wrapped around his brain, and that meant only one thing: the X-Men had caught up with him. Toad hit the brakes hard, yanked the handbrake on, and leapt from the spinning car onto the cliff-side. He had slowed the car enough that it wouldn't burn when it crashed; he could always retrieve the cash later. He scrambled upwards through the scrubby vegetation and scanned for somewhere with better cover so that the X-Men couldn't use their long-range powers on him. A stand of leafy trees lay ahead, and he leapt in their direction, swiftly changing direction as he jumped. The first inevitable blast of red light came at him, but missed as he twisted in mid-air and dove into the safety of the trees. The X-Men were tree-hugging liberal types; Toad was pretty sure they wouldn't just flatten forty grown trees just to get at him.
Silence followed. Toad's guess was right. Unfortunately, his options for escape were limited. The second he got in the open the X-Men could shoot him down – or worse, unleash the lightning on him – and all around the grove was exposed cliffs or open land. He'd just have to sit tight and let the battle come to him, which really was a poor option considering that he was outnumbered and they had a damn telepath with them. With any luck it would be the red-haired woman, who, as far as Toad could tell, had all the warrior instincts of a doormat, and not their Professor, who Magneto considered an equal and was therefore a deeply terrifying person.
Toad could hear three people moving out around the grove to surround him, and climbed the nearest tree to get a better look, moving slowly to avoid exposing his position. He could see Storm, the lightning woman, which sent a shudder through his body, and his favourite redhead, who had her hand held up front of her as if she was telling someone to stop. He couldn't see the third, but since someone had shot a red beam at him, he figured it must be their leader Cyclops, and therefore the Wolverine wasn't with them. That was a great relief for Toad, because, without him, Toad had a good chance of taking the X-Men down at close quarters.
First, the telepath-telekinetic, who Magneto had told them was named Jean. She was the only one who could attack him through the sheltering trees. She was edging nervously towards the grove, and Toad leapt straight at her chest to knock her backwards and down the cliff. She yelled in fright, but it was Toad that flew backwards when he hit the invisible wall in front of her.
"Cyclops! Over here!"
Toad picked himself up and leapt up into the branches as three narrowly focused beams sent dirt flying where he had been a moment before. The damn woman had got a lot better with her powers since he had fought her last. He leapt and swung frantically and randomly between trees, desperate to avoid giving Cyclops a clean shot. Instead, he soon found himself almost directly above the man, and couldn't resist trying his old trick with the visor.
His swift tongue lashed out to rip the visor from Cyclops' face, but the X-Man's hand was already at the side of his face, and he deftly grabbed Toad's tongue and yanked hard. Toad gagged and fell heavily from the tree, straight onto his opponent and the two men rolled over and over in the dirt.
Toad got both hands on the visor and tugged at it, but Cyclops managed to get a knee between his body and Toad's and shove Toad away from him, still dragging the tongue from his mouth. Toad choked and gasped: Cyclops' glove was now glued to his tongue. He managed to get one strong leg beneath him and leapt away. He hoped to tug the glove off Cyclops' hand, but the two of them were firmly stuck together and instead flipped in the air, rolled, and went straight over the edge of the cliff.
"Jean!" Cyclops yelled, and Toad felt something like a giant, smooth pincer grab them as they fell. He shoved both his muscular legs against it and leapt free from its grasp, still entangled with the X-Man. They tumbled downwards, bouncing and rolling across the narrow road past the crashed car, then down a steeper cliff, slowed only slightly by bushes, down and down into the rocky river at the bottom.
The two men were carried swiftly down the river, they knocked hard against boulders and the river bottom as they went. Toad didn't know if Cyclops had been unconscious before they hit the water, but his grip had certainly slackened. Toad peeled the man's glove off and slipped his sore tongue back where it belonged. Cyclops, now unattached to Toad, was immediately spun beneath the water by the strong current.
Toad grabbed a boulder with his sticky fingers and, despite his aches and bruises, easily climbed out of the river and on to the top of a rock. At his feet, Cyclops' body was pressed against the same rock by the current. Eddies pulled at his limbs made it look as if he was swimming, but he was face down and bleeding into the water. Toad hopped to another rock, closer to the bank, and peered upwards, to check for X-Men following them, but there was no-one to be seen. He hopped away again, and the current tugged at Cyclops' leg and pulled him back out into the river. Toad bounded from the rocks to the bank and took stock of his situation. He'd lost the cash for now, but he wasn't badly injured, had escaped the X-Men, and was less than a mile from the Adirondacks base.
Swiftly leaping along the bank, he saw Cyclops' body again, wedged between two rocks, close to the bank. Toad stopped, annoyed. There was no real reason that he needed a hostage. He seemed to have escaped cleanly. But it didn't seem clever or powerful to leave the man to die because Toad was lucky and he wasn't. It just seemed petty. Toad sighed. This was going to end badly, he was sure. Still, he jumped onto one of the rocks and hauled the X-Man out of the water.
He was alive, it seemed, because he immediately began to cough, vomiting water and bile onto the rocky bank. Toad rolled him onto his side with a hard poke to the ribs, then squatted for a moment to think. Maybe Magneto would like to have a captive X-Man when he came back. Not as a hostage; he'd be a follower, or even a slave. He'd be a slave that Toad had brought to the Brotherhood. Not even Sabretooth had single-handedly defeated an X-Man.
Toad puffed out his cheeks, immensely pleased with himself, then ripped off Cyclops' visor. Toad kept well to the side of Cyclops' face, as he didn't want to have anything blasted off, but Cyclops' eyes were closed and there was only a faint red glow around his eyelashes. Toad spat twice, once into each socket, and the gobbets of resin spread out and hardened, as they sealed the deadly eyes shut. Toad swung the semi-conscious Cyclops over his shoulder and bounded swiftly along the river, up a steep, pebbly slope and into Magneto's hidden base through a barely visible opening in the cliff face. No-one would find them here.
Toad slurped down a can of baked beans as he waited for the X-Man to awake. He had dribbled a glob of his strong resin around Cyclops' wrists as well, to bind his hands together with the resilient goo. He wasn't going to let his triumph go to waste, and no-one would ever believe him if the evidence wasn't right there in front of them.
It was strange to miss the rest of the Brotherhood. They'd never really appreciated him. Magneto constantly dismissed him, Sabretooth actually bit him once, Mystique ignored him; still, he missed them, and their sense of purpose. Alone, he had all the cool gadgets, but nothing that he wanted to do with them. Having a prisoner was more than exciting, it meant that the Brotherhood was active again, and Toad was doing more than being the Brotherhood's resident janitor.
Cyclops groaned and rolled onto his back. His hair was matted with blood, but the jagged cut on his forehead had gummed shut and he didn't appear to be otherwise injured. Toad put his empty can down and kept quiet to see what his prisoner would do now, but Cyclops didn't get up. Instead he tried to pull his hands apart, and, when he couldn't, brought his fingers up to touch his blind eyes.
He sighed, and in a conversational tone, said, "Toad? Are you there?"
Toad was so surprised that he answered, "Yeah."
Feeling that was rather underwhelming, he added, "And you're my prisoner. Don't think anyone's coming for you."
"Why not?"
"Well, they might try, but they're not going to find you here! Magneto knows all about you X-Men and what you can do, and he built all our bases so you'll never know where they are, not even with that telepathy machine."
Cyclops raised an eyebrow, just slightly, and Toad clamped his wide mouth shut, realising how much information he'd already spilled.
"Remember you're my prisoner, Cyclops. Don't start messing with me."
"Okay, gotcha. Did you get anyone else?"
"No, I – shut up!" Toad leapt through the air and crouched next to Cyclops, and shouted into his face. "Stop talking or I'll seal your mouth up! You've seen me do it!"
"Sure have," Cyclops snapped, and swiftly spun to the side, and swept Toad's legs out from under him with a hard double kick. Toad fell hard on his ass, and Cyclops leapt to his feet, then used his advantage to take a swing at Toad's head, double-handed by necessity.
The resin binding Cyclops' hands together connected heavily with Toad's skull, but its slight squashiness cushioned the blow. When Cyclops pulled his arms back for another hit, a considerable hank of hair stuck to the resin and Toad shrieked in pain. Cyclops tried to club Toad again, but Toad was leapt away and up to one of the rocky overhangs that pierced the smooth metal of the small base.
Cyclops stood very still, then, bound hands held in front of him and began to walk cautiously forward, his toes pointing the way, like a tightrope walker testing each step as he went. Toad watched him with interest and quietly stroked the sore spot on his scalp. He hadn't really expected a tied, blinded man to attack him, or try to escape, but, when he thought about it, it was exactly what he would have done himself. Giving up was not a strategy, even against overwhelming odds.
Toad sighed heavily. Cyclops had reached the cave wall had edged his way around the alternating panels of rough rock and shiny steel, towards the tiny entryway. It was hard to see, but Cyclops wasn't using his eyes to search. If he made it even a few feet outside, Professor Xavier would soon locate him.
Toad swung and hopped along the wall, and dropped down behind Cyclops.
"Going somewhere?"
"Hope so," Cyclops muttered, with a quick kick at Toad's chest. Toad was prepared, this, and stepped back. He easily caught the foot and spun Cyclops to the ground. Cyclops didn't land heavily, but Toad was immediately on top of him and wrestled him towards the wall. Cyclops twisted and rolled beneath Toad, ending in a low crouch, facing the wall, with Toad behind him. Toad avoided a backwards head-butt, leaned forwards over Cyclops' shoulder and spat goo in a hot, steady stream onto Cyclops' wrists. He had effectively glued him to the wall. Toad leapt back, and the resin groaned as Cyclops threw all his strength into pulling away from the wall before it set into place. The greenish gum stretched slightly, but solidified quickly. Cyclops was trapped in a kneeling position against a cool, smooth section of steel panelling.
Toad circled, and admired his handiwork. He spat a few more gobbets to reinforce the bonds, and yanked off Cyclops' remaining glove to make sure there was no room for give in the sticky mass. Cyclops leant his weight on one hip and tried to grab Toad in a scissor hold, but Toad easily stepped around his legs and grabbed Cyclops by the hair, tilting his face up.
"There. Now you really are my prisoner. Don't think you're getting out of that."
Toad stalked away. Keeping a prisoner was hard work, and he'd had about enough of it for today.
After a soothing cool bath – hot water dried out his secretory glands – and a dinner of tinned beef and more beans, Toad was feeling much better. He didn't like the chances of recovering his cash, as he'd expect the X-Men to have at least one person watching the area for his return. On the other hand, he was the proud owner of one X-Man, and that was cause for celebration. He picked up a bottle of water and strolled down to the main cave. Cyclops was still there, of course, sitting cross-legged, facing the wall, with his arms up at head-level.
"Welcome back, Toad."
"Want some water?"
"Thanks."
Toad flipped the lid off the bottle and held it to Cyclops' lips. Gulping quickly, most of the bottle went down in seconds, and Toad pulled it away.
"You know, I could be poisoning you."
"Why bother? You've got me where you want me."
"Heh. That's right."
"So, what are you going to do now? Ransom me?"
Toad brightened for a second – here was a way to get his money after all – then scowled.
"You're just trying to lure me out so your telepaths can find me! You X-Men think you're so damn smart, but who's the prisoner here? You are! I beat you! Me! Toad!"
"Yeah, you're pretty resourceful without Magneto."
"Damn right! Where would you be without your Professor and all his cash? You'd be begging Magneto to take you in, all of you!"
"I don't –"
"Yeah, you would! And he'd take you in, too. You know why?"
"No, I don't. Why?"
"Because we were a Brotherhood, you know? We all wanted to be here. We could all do something." Toad's voice dropped to a hiss. "There was no selection committee for the pretty mutants. I've seen your school. There are some weird-looking kids there, but who's on your team? Who gets seen? The pretty ones. The rest of us want a future, too."
"The X-Men aren't like that, Toad. We're trying to make a future for everyone."
"Yeah, everyone who fits in with the humans. You can just put on a pair of sunglasses and pass. Your Professor hand-picked you all for his public relations crusade."
"Toad, there's no conspiracy to keep you out."
"Hah! Look at us, and look at you."
"Look at what? I'm blind, right now, and without the Professor, I would be blind forever."
"So, you really don't care? You're a mutant spokesmodel, that's what they've made you, and –"
Toad was silenced when Cyclops stretched out and kissed Toad hard on the lips.
"No, Toad, I really don't care. Believe me, I can tell the difference between the pretty and the real. You'd make a great X-Man."
Toad stared at Cyclops, his eyes bugging out in surprise.
"You – you're a fag?"
"Now who's being exclusionary? No-one tells me what to think, or what to do. We fought you because you were hurting people, not because we hate you. I kissed you because you didn't believe that I'm not your enemy."
"But – you'd want me on your team? You've seen me, you know what I look like, and you kissed me?"
"Yes."
Toad stepped back in confusion. He didn't fully believe what Cyclops was saying. At least, he believed that Cyclops believed it, but he doubted that Professor Xavier had assembled his team in all innocence. Yet that feeling of being included, of being wanted, wanted for anything at all, was so strong it made him queasy with longing. Cyclops' lips had been dry and warm, and no-one had even thought about what Toad might think or feel for such a long time.
Toad squatted down and determinedly kissed Cyclops back, but the man showed no revulsion. Instead, Cyclops leant into the kiss, moved from the ground to up on his knees for leverage, and opened his mouth to allow Toad's long, pointed tongue inside.
Toad eagerly leant forward, his hands on either side of Cyclops' face, and then broke the kiss for a moment to duck in between Cyclops' outstretched, immobilised arms to kiss him face-to-face. With Cyclops held in place by the resin, Toad was free to climb almost on top of him and kiss him even more deeply, his tongue sliding over Cyclops', carefully keeping his tongue slick with saliva to prevent it sticking to the other man's teeth. Toad closed his eyes, and ran his hand over Cyclops' blind face. His fingers made slight sucking noises as they touched the resin in the eye sockets. Cyclops leaned backwards, so the weight of both men was supported by his arms, and Toad, with one hand on Cyclops' face and one in his matted hair, kissed him until Cyclops gagged.
"Sorry," Cyclops gasped, looking slightly embarrassed, "Not used to a tongue like yours."
"Who would be?"
"Good point," Cyclops smiled, and turned his face up to Toad's again.
Toad flicked his tongue between Cyclops' lips then slid his tongue completely around Cyclops' throat, dragging its slick length under the point of his jaw. He trailed it along the windpipe and Adam's apple, drawing a soft moan from Cyclops, who bent his head to the side to allow Toad better access. Toad's breathing quickened, and where his breath touched the wet skin tiny goosebumps rose up. Toad stared at them, and slid the point of the tongue down Cyclops' exposed windpipe into the hollow at the base of his neck.
"My jacket," Cyclops murmured, and Toad caught hold of the zipper, with a tiny "X" logo, and pulled it. The exposed skin beneath was sweaty and sour from all this time in leather. Toad didn't care about odour, and nuzzled his face into Cyclops' chest, breathed in the sour male scent, and absorbed it through his moist skin. He could feel Cyclops' hard-on as it pushed at his thigh, and grinned at his success. Toad flicking his tongue back into his mouth to re-wet it, then glided it across Cyclops' smooth chest.
"Hey." Cyclops interrupted Toad's ministrations, "Hey, Toad. Come back up here. I can't do anything for you down there."
Toad cast him a suspicious look, but Cyclops didn't ask for his hands or eyes to be unbound, so Toad wriggled back up between the outstretched arms. Cyclops kissed his mouth again, then bowed his head down and swiftly grabbed Toad's zipper with his teeth. Toad blinked in surprise, but before he could do anything about it, Cyclops had neatly levered the zipper down over Toad's uncomfortably bulging pants and, with a deft tongue manoeuvre, he freed Toad's cock from his saggy grey underpants.
"You've done that before!" Toad grunted, and somehow got his feet planted either side of Cyclops' knees and steadied himself with a hand on a shoulder and the other in Cyclops' hair.
"Mm-hmm," Cyclops replied.
He ran his tongue roughly along the underside of Toad's cock, then drew him into his mouth, with a delicate scrape of teeth that made Toad want to pull back and push forward at the same time. It was easier for his desperately confused body to just stand still, and rock slightly in time to Cyclops' movements. Cyclops closed his lips around Toad, and licked and sucked rhythmically. Their silence broken only by Toad's erratic gasps and Cyclops' occasional gulps of air. Toad closed his eyes, but unlike other times, with women he paid, he found that he wasn't thinking of someone, somewhere else, but was painfully, fully focused on what was happening right now. Crying out, a choked gurgle, he came with every cell of his body, and spurted his oily green semen into Cyclops' mouth and onto his face and chest.
Toad slumped down to the floor, between Cyclops' arms, and sat, dazed. He risked a glance up at Cyclops' face, unsure of what he expected to see, but certainly didn't expect a smile. Cyclops spat semen on the floor and laughed, gently.
"You okay?" he asked. His face was spattered with greenish droplets, and his eyes still firmly glued shut.
"Yeah," Toad said after a moment. "Yeah. I'm good."
He reached over and grabbed the bottle of water, holding it to Cyclops' lips, and Cyclops drank the remainder of the bottle, swirling it in his mouth and spitting it on the floor.
"You don't taste great, but, man, that tongue more than makes up for that. You've got a talent!"
Toad was shocked to find himself blushing – blushes showed up dramatically beneath his thin, greenish skin – and was suddenly glad that Cyclops couldn't see him.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to let you go," Toad muttered, suddenly feeling petulant.
"I wasn't trading. I don't do that anymore," Cyclops answered.
Toad opened his mouth to argue, but couldn't be bothered, overwhelmed as he was with warmth and closeness. He didn't really care about the Brotherhood, or the X-Men right now, just that Cyclops had done something for him, for Toad, and wasn't disgusted, wasn't scornful. Cyclops didn't despise him, and wasn't trying to hurt him. Toad leaned his head on Cyclops' bare, sticky chest, and went to sleep.
When Toad awoke, Cyclops was sitting cross-legged again, head slumped forward, asleep. Toad slid quietly out of his lap, stood, and looked down at Cyclops. He didn't want to fight him, now, or keep him here for Magneto to abuse. It was so easy, and so expected that he would cause fear and disgust; it was so unexpected that Cyclops would consider him a man, an equal, in front of whom he could be vulnerable, and even sexy.
He wasn't about to run off and join the X-Men – he could just imagine what Professor Public Relations would have to say about that – but the future that the Brotherhood had held out to him didn't have to depend on Magneto and his crazed plans for dominance. Maybe it was time for Toad to live for himself for a while. He leapt along the steel floor towards the storeroom, and grabbed one of the big plastic bottles of industrial solvent. Magneto hated it when he left a gooey mess on the steel floor, and the solvent cleaned it up quickly. He crept back, quietly, and sluiced the solvent all over the resin binding Cyclops' hands to the wall, then leapt up into the rough-hewn roof of the base.
Cyclops woke as the resin bubbled and slid down the wall, and his numb arms were pulled with it. He staggered to his feet, shook the melting mess from his hands, and planted a hand back on the wall. He traced his way from the exact spot where he had been stopped last night and quickly found the entry. Cyclops paused and looked back into the cave.
"You know where we live."
Cyclops slowly felt his way out of the cave and cautiously slid his way down the slope towards the river. Toad knew it wouldn't be long until his team-mates found him. Toad himself scuttled out of the base through another exit entirely and made his way back towards his crashed car full of cash. He had to blink and shield his eyes from the morning glare.
The X-Men would all dash off to welcome their leader home, and the car would be his. Where he would go was a question that didn't bother him right now, because wherever it was, it would be his own choice that took him there. He whistled as he leapt from rock to rock, cheerful, and feeling like a new man, anyone's equal, even Magneto's.
Besides, if he ever got lonely again, he had last night's videotapes.
583
A Toad, can die of Light—
Death is the Common Right
Of Toads and Men—
Of Earl and Midge
The privilege—
Why swagger, then?
The Gnat's supremacy is large as Thine—
Life—is a different Thing—
So measure Wine—
Naked of Flask—Naked of Cask—
Bare Rhine—
Which Ruby's mine?
Emily Dickinson