"Only if I consciously do so, yes. It's a lot easier now, and we can keep in touch over larger distances"

She grinned, "Now I'll never have to be apart from you." She got up, "Any tests you want to do on me today? Or shall I go train or... Shall we just stay here and enjoy each other's company?" She asked, slipping onto his lap and running her finger around his gem playfully.

"Ah, so much to do, so little time" Sinister sighed, "Come, I want to perform a stress test on you"

She pouted but got up, "Alright."

Sinister gathered together Slab, Gorgeous George, Ramrod and Ruckus in a large reinforced room and told them all to gang up on Ciara.

(Prep talk before the big game.)

Ciara fiddle with the outfit she was told to wear for the test. It was weighted and would take some getting use too. She walked into the large room, "Ok... where's the treadmill?" She asked seeing none in sight. "Hm? Oh Ruckus...Have you seen Nat-" She turned as Ruckus entered the room and with one loud scream threw her across the room into some crates. "Ruckus. What the hell are you doing?!"

Ciara barrel rolled front to avoid a large metal beam being thrown at her. "Guys?...What's gotten into you?!"

Ramrod laughed, "What kinda stress test were you thinking of?!" he asked as he swung his staff at ciara. As it moved through the air it sprouted to life with vines that tried to ensnare her.

Ciara grit her teeth, moving out of the way of Ramrod's vines and round house kicking Ruckus in the face. Her movements were much slowly than usual. It was 10 mins in and Ciara was covered in sweat.

"Enough" Sinister called as he walked through the door, "That will do just fine" he smiled widely.

Ciara slid down the wall, grasping for breath. Her body felt like jello and she was sure she had several bruises now.

Sinister walked over and knelt in front of her, taking her wrist gently to check her pulse, "how do you feel?" he asked.

"Like I'm about to have a panic attack." She commented, detaching the weighted shoulder/chest piece, which sunk to her lap and taking a deep breath. "I can barely move in this thing!"

"That's part of the process" Sinister explained, "Once we get you back up to your skill level with all this on, imagine what you will be capable of without it? In the mean time, I get to see how well you work under stressful situations and gauge any further tests accordingly so that I don't overtax you."

"And you couldn't explain this before hand because?" She said snappily. Not liking not being informed properly.

"Because then you would have been expecting it" Sinister replied after checking her over and then offering her a hand up, "I need a base-line to see how you respond under pressure, to surprises, to see how well you adapt. If you have been informed then I would have only collected half the data."

"..." She took his hand, "I hate it when you're right." She punched his arm lightly.

"That's a lot of hatred" Sinister smirked, pulling her to her feet. "Now, Lunch?"

"You know what I meant." She stuck her tongue out. "Sure. Just want to take a quick shower first k?"

He nodded, "See you shortly then."

----

Scott stood outside the house and took a deep breath before knocking. Hopefully everyone at the brotherhood house wouldn't be their usual selves...

After a moment of loud crashes, Toad finally answered the door. Upon seeing Scott there he yelped and slammed it shut again.

"The hell Toad!" Lance's voice exclaimed, "You slam me into the floor to get the door and then you slam it in the person's face? Seriously. Who was it?!"

"X-GEEK. RUN!" Toad yelled back as the sounds of crashing banged away up stairs as Toad retreated.

"X-geek?" Freddy and Lance repeated in unison.

Freddy opened the door again, saw Scott and proceeded to retreat upstairs with Toad, "HE'S FINALLY COME FOR US! RUN!"

Lance was still picking himself up off the floor in the hallway, in full view now that the door had been left open. He looked at Scott, clearly confused by his presence but didn't comment on it. He yelled upstairs to the other two, "Dudes! He can't kick us out, would you chill already?! Magneto would have his ass for kicking out Speedy's friends."

Toad poked his head around the corner, "But speedy's still mad at us. What if he doesn't care anymore?"

"I don't wanna leave!" Freddy complained in sorrow, "I like it here! There's food!"

"And we don't gotta steal it either yo!" Toad added

"And nobody questions a big guy walking around"

"yeah yo! And nobody thinks I'm sick just cuz I'm green!"

"And there's a pretty girl at the bakery who gives me free rolls"

"and-dude, you got a girl yo?"

Lance face-palmed and sighed heavily, "Would you two shut up already!" he turned back to Scott finally, exasperated, "What do you want?" he demanded.

Scott coughed into his hand, "I was wondering if Pietro was around. I have something I'd like to talk to him about..."

"Huh? No" Lance replied, still looking confused, "Pietro hasn't been around since Ciara spilled the beans on his hobby. I mean, briefly to help get Genosha outta that jam a little while ago but... if he's been around, he hasn't been staying here."

Toad instantly leaped down the stairs in a single bound and stood in scott's face, "Wait. Speedy's in trouble?!" he demanded.

"I thought Magneto always kept tabs on him" Freddy peeked down at them, "Doesn't he know?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I... Your house is on the way to the Magneto's. I thought I would stop here first...If he does stop by, tell him I'm looking for him. Thanks for your time." Scott turned and headed up the hill.

The three of them looked at each other and spoke one word in unison as they were all really creeped out, "... weird."