After our stunning victory against the New Avengers, we took all the Brotherhood mutants we rescued from the Vault prison back to the school in Westchester. The flight back in the X-Jet was rather uneventful. Wolverine spent most of the time asking everyone if they saw his fast-ball special maneuver.

We managed to escape without any serious injury, unless you count the mortal wounding of my pride. My first stop once we landed at the mansion was to shave off my new shocking mane of orange afro.

I had thought about having Gaia simply erase my new, totally unwelcome hair with her awesome reality warping powers, but since I have been saddled with having the mutant child Leech staying in the school, no one's powers are working. Why we haven't bothered to come up with an actual name for the boy, I don't know. "Leech" can't be very good for his self-image. That's the least of my problems, though.

Instead, I let Wolverine shave my head. True, he is a sociopath and therefore not someone I would particular want to let anywhere near me when he's wielding a sharp instrument, but he is good with knives. The whole process took him about 20 seconds. Hopefully the hair won't grow back.

Now that I was presentable again, my next stop was to see Forge. I had a little assignment for him.

My third stop was to see Magneto. He was down in the game room playing the Nascar pinball machine. I noticed that he had managed to rack up a score of over 3 million points and was well on his way to getting the all-time high. There was a half eaten box of Milk Duds on the corner of the game.

"I hope you aren't cheating, Eric," I said.

Without turning his attention from the game, he said, "How can I with Leech in the house?"

"Well, that's true," I answered. After a brief pause I continued. "You know we have returned with Mystique and the others."

"Wonderful," he replied absently.

"Everyone made it out of the Vault safely, in case you were wondering."

"I had every confidence in you."

"Mystique has already left and Exodus is about to arrive to pick up the rest of the Brotherhood members."

"Fine, fine."

"Can I assume that you will be leaving with the Brotherhood then?" I asked.

"Hmm, no I don't think so, Charles."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Look, Eric, the whole reason why we broke you out of jail was because the Brotherhood needs a leader. They are running amok in Avalon. You have a duty to go to them."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine. You worry too much."

This was just too much for me. I'm afraid I lost my composure. If you are easily disturbed, then you may want to skip the next paragraph.

"Oh come on, Eric! What the hell is your game?! Why are you hanging around the mansion?! What do you want?!"

Did you see all those exclamation points? I was rather inflamed. Sorry. I will try and control myself in the future.

"Charles, if you don't mind, I am having rather a good game here and you are starting to distract me," was Magneto's reply to my tirade. He did not say another word to me.

I stared at him for several moments before turning around and wheeling out. He can just be so frustrating. I know he's up to something, but what?