Chapter 101: Ready

"Then no more traveling. I hope you stay like this…. A man of political action is a dangerous man." Pietro said as he raced across Bronte's apartment in a blur of blueish silver and took the beer off the counter.

"To himself or to who you need dead?" W'Kabi caught Pietro's possibly thinly veiled focused flattery. Pietro didn't bother answering.

"Fighting off the end of life as we know it can't be political. That's od." Bronte took a swig of his fourth beer and leaned against his fridge.

"Everything is political." Wanda replied.

"It gets exhausting fast." Ororo added, "But I'm sure you know all about that. Tosin and his people speak of you often. So too does Gentle."

"I'm glad they're all doing ok."

"That, they are." Ororo nodded, looking like a moving statue in his apartment.

If Bronte's time in Wakanda wasn't so short— or dangerous, he could've had a good time with them. Even if Tosin hit him with attacks that should've shattered his ribs on first meeting…

Brontë shook himself out of his thoughts of gladiator fights under the gaze of Wakandan royalty, "So— who's gonna be there? What should I expect?"

"Every gathering has been different. Different goals, different interest groups— even relations change in short time quite easy. But this one should be quite cordial and to the point. Hopefully nothing like our last meeting." Ororo mumbled the last sentence. He'd never known her to mumble. The action made her seem decades younger.

"What happened at the last meeting?" Bronte questioned.

"The Hellions crashed it." Piotr said.

"What is a Hellion?"

Piotr, Wanda and W'Kabi looked to Ororo as if they didn't wish to answer. Brontë could've heard the eggshells even if he didn't have superhuman senses.

"Hellions are the X-Men if they agreed with Magneto more and had less problem violently and brutally killing people who oppose them."

Brontë suddenly had a thought of Cyclops beam blasting a hole through an anti-Mutant protester before being ripped apart by Beast.

"Are they coming?"

"I'm sure." Ororo nodded, "But no full teams are allowed. This should insure lower risk of rivalry meetings and bad blood beginning to boil."

Piotr wiped his mouth off with his hand before crossing his arms. He looked so at home in his running gear it almost destroyed the legitimacy of the meeting, "I'd like to add, the Hellions have no allegiance to my father or Magneto's Sword at all. They function more like a special ops group these days. Like X-Force."

Ororo reached behind her head and tightened her nappy bun of white hair, "I appreciate you attempting to appeal to my history, Piotr. But this time I will keep my judgement until the source can prove otherwise."

Piotr nodded. "Your spine remains firm. As any Queen's should."

It didn't take a detective/Mutant historian for Bronte to surmise that X-Force was the team Storm and Wolverine were last on together before Romulus put an end to it all.

"I'm sure you'd like to know the team line ups of each group." Wanda took the floor, looking over Bronte once again with her terrifying red eyes.

"Yea, that would be cool."

She shrugged. "We can't know. That allows strategy against Mutants which allows focused violence—"

"Which breeds or continues rivalry." Bronte sighed, "Yea I'm staying home this shit is a headache."

Piotr looked like he just swallowed a rock.

"These folks don't know how you joke, Tay. Be careful before you cause a heart attack." W'Kabi laughed as he walked over to Bronte's stereo and played a quiet instrumental.

"I hear you, but the more complex and redundant we are the safer." Ororo reminded.

"Heard you." Bronte pulled his hair back and tied it up like Ororo's, "Let me get this right, a number of Mutant teams are meeting up and discussing making trades and alliances with Krakoan Mutants. And you want me to come to talk about Daken?"

Ororo and Wanda shook their heads.

"We all know of Daken's recent change and goals, whispers of his actions spread like wildfire in criminal underground's. Even with how careful he is. The Mutants are involved already because he involved them. He's no different from the politicians and men in power that want to wipe us off the map." Wanda explained. "The change he wants is still our destruction at the end of the day."

"This is war, Bronte." Piotr concluded. "You have sole leading power this time. It isn't The Wolverines versus The Lupines. It's Mutantkind versus Daken, Lord of the Vampires. You have the information, the history…."

"And The Darkhold." Ororo added.

"You are currently this world's most valuable asset." Wanda said.

They all stood on the other side of the counter from him.

W'Kabi stood leaning against the windowsill behind his producer setup. He had his hands in his hoodie pocket. His freshly twisted fade glistened under the sun with all the oils in it. He did a breathing motion as if to remind Bronte to find the calm in his current storm.

"So, we want to know, who will you bring?" Ororo questioned.

Brontë stood up from leaning on the fridge. His tanktop felt tighter on his chest and back, "Aye hold on— y'all want me to just lay out of a team lineup off the cuff like that? After you just told me the stakes?… that's not crazy?"

"Our lives are crazy by definition." Wanda replied, "But not that crazy." She lied.

"You have two weeks. No more than five members. Including yourself. I'm sure Charles hopes you'll bring more of his Mutants as a loophole to bring the whole of the X-Men." Ororo added.

"But that wouldn't be smart. It would piss everyone else off…."

Ororo smiled but, her walnut brown skin and white eyes glimmered with sadness, "You're already getting the hang of it."

He could smell it, "What? Don't leave anything out now."

Wanda and Piotr looked at eachother in confusion.

"There is nothing more. This is….. beyond enough." Ororo sighed, "You shouldn't have to face this— this shouldn't be expected of you. You're barely twenty-one years old. You still haven't found love…. Or peace… or pursued your passions without looking over your shoulder. I'm sorry, Bronte. I wish I could make your life the peace and comfort it deserves to be, and not the recoil of enemies made before you."

Bronte looked out the window his father stood by to his right, "I hear you. But it ain't too bad. I'm still here. I'm solid... I just got out of a depressive episode, I think. I have the power to do something about all my issues…. and more. Everybody can't say that."

Ororo smiled— truly this time, mirroring W'Kabi's own expression, "You're strong, Bronte. The others will see it as easy as I can. Keep being you, Wakanda has your back. Whatever you need, just call."

Bronte nodded. He could feel the meeting coming to an end.

"Speaking of strength. I heard your powers waned for a while…." Piotr side eyed him.

"They did. But I had to get back right or a possessed Sorcerer would've erased Mutantkind."

"Impressive. I'm forever grateful... Do you feel stronger?…. Faster, perhaps?"

Wanda and Ororo sighed.

"Fifty on Bronte." Ororo whispered.

"One hundred on Piotr." Wanda replied confidently.

"What the—"

"W'Kabi if the elders find out I came to the west and gambled I'll know you snitched." Ororo said.

W'Kabi bowed, "My lips are sealed, my Queen. And my pockets are slimming... I got fifty on Tay."

Bronte smiled faintly, "To Staten Island?"

"Three….."

"Two…"

Bronte's dreads went white.

"One."

The apartment was empty in a flash.