The Education of Mr. Toad

Toad’s driving license says he's twenty-one; he has passports for every age between fourteen and twenty-two. One of them is true. There are rules of course, none of the false names on them can be plays on his birth name or his real name, although that doesn't mean that he doesn't keep a couple of spares handy that do exactly that, just to wind Magneto up.

All of his passports say he's a dual national, because he's never been able to hide his accent, although he suspects that might be because he's never wanted to, because enough of the people he’s met through Magneto are definitely hiding their origins, especially Magneto himself, because there's no way that that's his real accent.

He has to assume they're not all mutants, the people that Magneto brings in for his various plans, either that, or mutants are prone to becoming criminals and then the minute he thinks that he remembers all the not quite sociology, not quite economics that Magneto has tried to teach him about lack of opportunity leading to the development of criminality, and that really, given where he'd ended up, he had no room to talk, mostly because unlike Magneto and Mystique, he's not entirely sure he believes in this crusade, and he's not sure he's not just in it for the chaos.

They put the money they steal to good use though. Right now they were training to fight, preparing for battles yet to come. Their last few jobs had netted them enough money to set themselves up as a rich family in Northern California. They'd even got the pool that he'd demanded after that nine month stint in Arizona where the air was too dry for comfort, and he could barely breathe half the time. He has no idea what they'd told the karate instructor, probably that Mystique is Magneto’s trophy wife, but the man turns up for the two hours they've booked him and doesn't mind when Mystique is the only person who shows up.

Toad watches them through the one way glass. Mystique is a fantastic mimic of everything, not just the way people look, and he'll get anything he misses off her when they go through it later.

Magneto is keen on them learning how to fight; he says they're not always going to be lucky like they were in London, where Toad rescued them when he first met them, or the near disaster in Rome, where, well, he still not sure exactly how they got out of that one in one piece, mostly because he got knocked unconscious by the fifth security guard.

It's a lot like school, in a way, he's got a set timetable for PE, and Magneto teaches him all kinds of things. Some of it probably isn't on traditional curriculums, like passport forgery for beginners, but it's definitely useful, and Magneto chooses to use it as an excuse to teach him chemistry and history. Mystique covers geography and that kind of stuff, and the other people who seem to wander in and out had all kinds of knowledge they passed on. The main thing he'd been good at when he was still at school had been electronics, but Magneto had that covered, along with the maths, engineering and physics that went with it. Magneto was always keen for him to remember the things he was taught, and liked to set homework, although, again, demonstrating an understanding of the electronics of alarm systems by breaking into houses undetected probably wasn't the usual set homework for that kind of thing. He gets marked harshly when the second alarm, that he didn't even know was there, goes off while he's braking into the fourth house. How was he supposed to know it was there, it wasn't like he was in charge of checking the house out beforehand.

It was things like that that make him think Magneto was a teacher before all of this. Toad assumes there was a before, he can't imagine someone doing this all their life. He can't ask though, it's not the sort of thing you do. The assumption puts an interesting spin on things, like where Magneto met Mystique. Mystique is probably older than Toad, he's guessing from what she's said, not from anything physical, but not that much older, and you have to start wondering.

Not that Toad has much time for wondering, because Magneto really does have a bee in his bonnet about the martial arts thing. If there's a fighting discipline with a school somewhere between here and Los Angeles that they haven't been trained in then it's not through lack of trying on the Old Man's part. Toad takes to them like a duck to water, or a frog to water in his case, his legs providing an extra spring to everything. His tongue provides an extra weapon, and the green spit that he still hasn't quite got used to the taste of acts as a weapon and a defence if needed.

It's nice to be good at something, finally, even if he doesn't know why they're doing it.

~~~~

He finds out when they're attacked as they try to break into the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Magento thinks the government are keeping a list of mutants, he can't prove it though, and he doesn't know where it is, so they've been hitting any places that they can think of that might be keeping them. It's all going smoothly, easy as, until he finds himself blown backwards by a gust of wind that was far too sudden to be natural. That's when he sees the girl, all long silver hair and flowing cape, and some part of him knows that she's the source. He has to assume they're mutants then.

The wind-girl joined by another girl; the second one had long red locks, and a man. A guy, Toad changed his opinion on closer inspection; the guy might have been a couple of years older than him at most. The fourth person was built like a brick shithouse. Toad and Mystique dealt with the four of them as best they could but they were definitely on the losing end of the fight, until Magneto ordered a full on retreat.

"What was that?"

"That is what I plan to find out."

Toad wasn't sure where dragging him out to some park in Washington, dressed in his Sunday best, fitted in with finding out, but he went anyway.

Magneto found what he was looking for straight away, almost like he knew where the bald man would be.

They made what looked like small talk and sat down. They were far enough away from him that he couldn't hear what they were saying, and he was trying to eavesdrop without making it obvious that he was doing it. He didn't have to stay in that awkward not quite leaning position for long though, as the bald man raised his voice, "He's only fifteen."

"And yet you're reading his mind." The bald man looked slightly ashamed. "Anyway, he came to me. Show him, Toad, tell him how we met."

He'd been minding his own business on a roof the night he'd met Mystique and Magneto. Night time was about the only time he was allowed out. He wasn't the first mutant in Britain, or even in their part of London, and he wasn't the most extreme looking, but his parents still had no idea what to do with him, as he'd gotten greener and slimier all that summer. It was already October and he'd been off school for more than a month. They couldn't keep saying he was ill forever, and he was getting heartily sick of them talking about him like he wasn't there. Okay, so he was green, but he hadn't changed. They wouldn't let him out during the day though, no matter what he said, and he'd taken to sneaking off in the night, jumping from building to building, hoping for insects.

That was also on the list of 'things that weren't his parents’ fault, but that they weren't helping with'; he could, at a push, eat normal food, but it tasted horrible. What he really wanted was a nice, juicy fly, or a crunchy dragonfly. Something with a bit of zip to it anyway.

He hadn't been paying any attention to what was going on around him, confident enough in his balance to jump instinctively, until he heard the nee-naw, nee-naw of a police siren. He changed that estimate to several police sirens, disturbingly close. He hoped they weren't after him, he wasn't doing any harm, he landed on things almost as light as a feather, and it would be embarrassing to them when they lost him amongst the rooftops of London. He'd like to see any copper keep up with him up here.

The sound seemed to move away, heading down to the river, and he couldn't help but follow to see what the fuss was. He saw an old man in a very silly outfit, all cape and helmet, with a bright blue girl, and they were running away from the police. He just about understands what possessed him to help, but has no idea why they followed him, some random bloke who crawled down a building at them. He lead them away from the chase, the way only a local could, and found them somewhere to doss for a couple of days. He kept them supplied with the stuff they needed, bandages, food, drink and newspapers, and they explained who they were.

That was when he knew what he was going to be, what he had to be to get away from the inescapable hell his life was slowly becoming.

"And so here he is." Magneto's voice brought him back to the here and now, feeling mildly fuzzy. "I don't kidnap children, Charles; I give them a way to fight back when society tries to destroy them."

They left soon after that, Toad none the wiser about exactly why they were set upon, but knowing that he'd probably see the other mutants again. He also got the distinct feeling that the bald man knew Magneto, because he'd called him Erik. Obviously he'd known that Magneto wasn't born with that name, nobody was, but he'd never considered what Magneto's birth name could have been, and certainly he'd never heard anyone use it. This could have been because Magneto was very into the idea of real names, as opposed to birth names. Toad didn't care, Mortimer was a raven while Magneto faintly disapproved of him being quite so literal with his choice of name. But a toad was what he resembled, so Toad was what he'd rather be called. Plus, it wasn't like there was anything else you could really do, name-wise, with his mutations. If this was your true form, and where your true name should come from, well that, it was either Toad or be the Frog Prince, and well, he wasn't French.

Magneto called in reinforcements, saying that if Xavier was going to cheat by having two telepaths, he was going to make sure they had just as hard a time of it. The last outburst was caused by Toad hitting the red head in the face with a brick he'd aimed at beam boy. He'd felt guilty and Magneto had been in a tearing rage, using the phone to call Xavier, which had to be breaking some sort of common sense rule.

"Damn it Charles, if they can't look after themselves, don't send them out there."

They'd moved after that, which Toad thought was a shame. The area around Seattle may have been a bit cold but it was pleasingly damp.

The move didn't do much for his guilt. Mystique laughed at him, a bitter laugh, "You think anyone else plays by any kind of rules. They're not going to stop until they've wiped us out, and any mutants who are against us are with them. No mercy given."

Mystique was the one exception to his belief that no one could do this all their lives. His curiosity wasn't getting the better of him to the point where he was going to ask though. He also wasn't going to ask where Magneto met Quicksilver and Wanda. Toad had no idea why they were helping them and he wasn't sure they had either. All he'd got was mumbled mutterings from Wanda about life debts and louder grumblings that Magneto was a fool and a madman from Quicksilver.

He started to agree with Quicksilver when the building they were investigating collapsed on him and the one of Xavier's men he was fighting with. It was the big man, the one who looked like an overgrown prop forward, and he protected Toad from the worst of it. When Toad came to later on, the big man had built a makeshift barrier against the force of the building trying to push its way down.

"I would attempt to excavate ourselves out, except that from this position I fear it would only lead to our sudden premature demise."

"So, you're saying we're stuck here."

"Yes."

"Great."

Toad managed to wait for about five minutes before asking, "So there's no way out?"

"No."

There were a few more minutes of sullen silence before Toad couldn't resist any longer. "You know, this would never have happened if you lot kept your noses out of it."

"If you hadn't commenced on a series of felonious excursions, then we wouldn't have had to stop you."

"We're doing this for you, you know."

"I'm not sure how becoming the stereotype of the fearsome criminal mutant is advancing our cause, but I have no doubt you are about to enlighten me."

Toad was beside himself with anger, the cheek of the man. "I notice you're not amongst those of us who'll be first against the wall. You start glowing green, and if you still feel that way, then you get to take the moral high ground."

The other man saw his point. "We know they're planning a mutant registry,"

"We know they have one."

The man looked closely at him, like he was seeing Toad for the first time. "Do you know where?"

"What do you think we've been looking for?"

"Do you really think you can find it by randomly attacking every government building you see?"

"'Better than sitting on our arses and doing nothing."

"I grant action its virtues, but it has to be considered action. There's no point running in scatterbrained. Have any of the break-ins yielded anything?"

Toad shrugged his shoulders violently. "Not exactly." He slumped hard onto the floor. "But at least we know where they aren't keeping it."

"There is that to it."

"Anyway, what do you do when you're not failing to stop us?"

"I rescued a cat from a tree last weekend; I spent the rest of my time helping out at hospital."

"I can't really see you as a candy striper."

"And completed my chemistry project." The other guy finished his sentence after Toad’s interruption.

"Well aren't you just special then." Toad slumped backwards, destabilising the structure and nearly bringing it down. As it was, it would have crushed him had the big guy not pulled him out at the last second. "Thanks."

"Not a problem."

"'You okay?" The other man might have been about to say he was, except Toad then saw the bright red gash on his arm. "That's going to need stitches." Toad got the mini-med-kit from his trousers and dealt with the injury as best he could, given that the other guy kept wiggling. "Oi. Leave it out. I know what I'm doing. Someone has to be team medic." Admittedly it was normally himself he had to patch up, with Mystique and Wanda being the runners up in that unwanted race.

The other guy checked the bandaging over. "I think this will do."

"It ought to. That's what I spent last weekend doing."

"Thank you, ...? You've got to have a name, or something I can call you at least."

"Toad." And it was true; he hadn't considered himself as anything except Toad for such a long time. It wasn't a code name, or anything silly like that, Magneto had been right, it was his true name, and it was what he was and who he was at the same time, everything that he could be.

"Hank."

"A pleasure, I'm sure."

They did settle down after that, because it was hard to maintain a grudge against someone who'd injured themselves getting you out of harm's way. They'd resorted to talking about sport by the time they were rescued. Of course, it had to be Wanda that rescued them. He could have dealt with it being anyone else but her. It wasn't that she was a woman, he'd worked with Mystique long enough that that didn't matter to him, but when you were chasing after a girl it didn't look good. Not that he'd done anything about it, because Quicksilver would kill him, but he had hopes. He'd also sworn never to talk to anyone about the matter, after Mystique nearly keeled over laughing when he'd mentioned something about it. It was just that Wanda was beautiful and constantly nearby and he thinks he's going to explode one of these days if he doesn't do something about it.

He'd have to do it soon, because Quicksilver kept going on about leaving the moment that Magneto doesn't need them to make up the numbers against Xavier's men. He didn't know what Quicksilver and Wanda were going to do next, he wasn't sure they knew either, but they'd be gone. He couldn't see why Wanda had to go with her brother, other than them always doing everything together, she could stay, this had to be better than whatever. It wasn't like Wanda was a push-over for anyone else except her brother, she was the only person he'd ever seen win an argument against Magneto. That's why she kept her birth name, she said she was Wanda and her powers weren't her. There had been a lot of shouting, but Magneto never got her to change her mind.

Wanda was the only good point right now. The mundanes were getting worse, and he was starting to feel Mystique was right. It was bad enough in the US, you couldn't go a week without hearing about someone being mutant-bashed, not that the mainstream news covered it. Who was interested in mutant affairs except other mutants? The one that really shook him up happened right round the corner from where he used to live in London. Girl had been dragged behind a pub and well, the rest was too disturbing for even the Sun to print it, and all because she'd had a forked tongue.

Given how much he'd hated Jason Wyngarde last time they met, he had this sudden warm feeling for him when he'd heard that the guy they got for it had gone mad in his cell. He recognised Mastermind right behind that one.

Still, it made not having seen Hank during their last few run-ins with Xavier's lot a bit worrying. Sure, Hank could look after himself, but he was enough of an idiot to try to reason with a crowd instead of getting out of there.

If it had only been one fight Hank had not been at it wouldn't be so much of a problem, that kind of thing happened, someone was injured; someone else was doing a reccy of the next place they were going to hit, but four in a row, that was nearly impossible. He was going to have to see if some of Wanda's courage, or blind angry stubbornness, had rubbed off on him.

"I know you've got a number for Xavier. I need to use it." Magneto crooked up an eyebrow.

"That was years ago, he’s probably changed it."

"He hadn't changed it then, he's not going to have changed it now."

"Why?"

"Hank saved my life, least I can do if one of them's killed him is get some payback." Magneto motioned for him to continue. "What I mean is, well, you and Mystique were right," he used to be the one taking the hopeful position, that there might be some way of co-existence without violence, "and just because they're too naive to see it, doesn't mean that we shouldn't at least keep an eye out for them. We didn't ask them to get involved, and we don't set out to hurt them when they get in our way. Doesn't mean we won't, doesn't mean we pull our punches either, but it's not why we're doing it. Any mundane attacking him, they're doing it to kill him 'cause he's a mutant. It makes him one of us, even if he doesn't want to be. Give me the number."

Magneto wrote it down on a piece of paper, like he'd memorised it years before. He was about to hand the paper over to Toad until he thought better of it and rang himself.

"I'm calling on behalf of Toad. Please don't bother trying to trace the call. We're moving base anyway."

Magneto gave Toad the phone receiver. "Where's Hank?"

"Studying biochemistry at Stamford," was Xavier’s reply.

"Oh, well, as long as he's alright."

"Would you like me to pass on any message?"

"No, thank you."

Magneto and Mystique didn't let him hear the end of that one, especially as they had to move base because of it. He could see their point, but it wasn't like he could find out, and he'd rather be safe than sorry.

Hank was the first to go, but not the last. The red head followed him into University, to Columbia, and when she went, so did Quicksilver and Wanda. Wanda pointed out that, without the red headed girl, there was no need for her to be there. Toad did try to talk her out of it, but she kissed him on the cheek and waved goodbye. "Don't you see, Toad, you'll follow him into the grave, and I'm not willing to do that."

He really should have followed Wanda out of there, except it would have left Magneto and Mystique in the lurch, which wasn't something he was willing to do. They seemed to understand though, and treated him carefully for the next couple of weeks, or possibly it was that Magneto wasn't taking it much better than Toad was. Toad thought it was because Magneto wanted more, well not followers, which is what Quicksilver said it was, but fellow travellers, because it would make his life easier; Magneto shouldered so much of the weight of this movement that anyone would be a help, but people kept leaving, despite how much worse the situation was getting for mutants.

They were sitting quietly one night; Magneto had been nursing a whisky for a couple of hours. Mystique was out casing the next place they were going to break into, and Toad had finished the book he was reading. He really ought to have gone and got another if he was that bored, but he just couldn't settle. He thought that it could be the start of autumn; he was just itching to get somewhere warmer.

Magneto sat up in his chair. "I feel I owe you an apology." Magneto didn't sigh, but his words sounded like one. "It is singularly unfair that you are denied the chance to go to university with your fellows."

"I'm not sure that denied is really the word." Toad smiled. He didn't think he was missing out on much, it wasn't like his Dad had ever gone to uni and it hadn't hurt him.

"The fact remains that you are missing out on the very things you're fighting for. It was never meant to be like this." Toad stayed quiet this time, the tone of Magneto's voice suggesting that he should listen closely to what came next. "When Charles and I set up the school it was meant to ensure that those gifted with the X-gene would get the education they deserved, and not the substandard one they were likely to receive if their gifts ever became public knowledge. But even Charles's wealth had its limits, and we could barely reach a third of even just the children with mutations in our state. I know the phone number because I set up the phone line for them to ring." Toad liked being proved right in his guess that Magneto had been a teacher. "There are so many children we've failed, and I don't want you to be one of them."

"You've not failed me yet. Look at it this way, when we finally win," equal healthcare, equal rights, equal protection by the law, "we can knock me up a fake leaver's certificate, or whatever you have over here, and I can go then. It wouldn't feel right taking what isn't there for everyone. We'll say my family hid me in the attic, it's plausible enough to fool most people." Hank and Red had taken what they could, nothing wrong there, certainly Toad wouldn't be the one to begrudge them that, but he couldn't take what tonnes of people like him wouldn't get if he didn't stick with this.

The things he’d seen recently, people being hounded out of neighbourhoods, scared so much they’d hidden in sewers, children younger than him being beaten up or hanging themselves rather than being found out, everything getting worse because instead of there being the occasional mutant that people could feel sorry for, now there were lots of them which meant they could be dangerous, and people never could deal with differences, certainly not differences that made the abnormal people better, so they were scared. No mass of scared people had ever been anything but stupid so someone had to stop them before they killed every mutant they could get hold of.

It really was a case of us or them.

He now understood why he could never figure out what Mystique had been before, there was no before, there was only this, anything else was just a pretence before you got called to your higher purpose. Staying here was the only worthwhile thing he could do with his life.