Age Of Magneto

Hell Over Earth

All was well and good on the way to the transport to Avalon ... until K spotted a little kid that was laying perfectly still on the concrete, not far from where the rally had taken place. She froze when she saw the little one, then rushed to her only to go into panic mode with her ears ringing when she realized the little one had no heart beat. She knelt next to her and called for help - there were plenty of emergency services around, but where this kid was - half behind a building, and blocked from the street by trash cans - they clearly didn't see her.

A pair of medics saw her come up to where the kid was, but it wasn't until K had started trying to revive the little one that they swore and grabbed their gear to come and help. Which was how Erik found her on his way through - on her knees helping the medics to do CPR while one of them set up the leads and monitoring devices to see what the story was. All of them were wearing identical expressions, and Erik paused a respectable distance away to watch. Any of his followers that came through that might have had something snide to say stopped when they spotted her trying to revive the little girl, and for a moment, it was clear that at least Erik and his family were not pleased with what had happened to that child.

As soon as the kid was on the monitors and packed up to go, the medics rushed her to the ambulance leaving K on her knees trying to catch her breath. She wasn't expecting Pietro of all people to slowly come forward and put his arm around her shoulders to get her to her feet.

He didn't have a word to say, but the tight, tense look on his face spoke volumes of what he was thinking. The little girl had the same wide, blue eyes that both Maximoff twins had - and her hair was long and blonde. And even though Pietro knew there was no way that this child was his little Luna, the rough resemblance was enough to set him back and knock him silent.

The mood going up to Avalon in Magneto's transport with Pietro and K was a somber one, and K had more or less made up her mind to talk to Erik later about the close call she had with Captain America, but he beat her to it.

"Had you kept away from the Avengers, like you said you were going to," Erik said, immediately getting a look of almost horror from Pietro, "... then you might have been able to get to that child much faster."

"Father, no," Pietro said, shaking his head as he dove in to argue with him. "Before you saw that kid, you were hell bent on getting after her for not fighting the X-Men. Just ... stop. You can't have it both ways, and she was doing the right thing."

K frowned, pulled from her thoughts by that. She hadn't expected Pietro to ever have defended her over anything. But ... she'd never really expected to find herself in a position where Captain America was trying to make her eat dirt either. "You told me you had things covered," K said in a low, even tone. "I don't carry a general communicator since you dropped those and elected to have the White Bitch serve as a link up for the team - which, incidentally, she can't reach out to me."

"That's only because you won't allow her to," Erik pointed out.

"Yes, because you're in a rush to let her into your head, too," K said, her dander rising. "The woman is screwing with your game and your strategy. She's a neon bright liability and you know it."

"She's also incredibly useful to me for now," Erik snapped. "Which is more than I can say for you if you don't want to fight."

K bristled. "I've been by your side helping you streamline your strategies-"

"I don't need your help in that area," Erik said quickly, cutting her off. "And I don't need you saving children that will only grow up with a vendetta to fulfil."

"Then quit killing their families!" K snapped with a snarl, and a moment later, the next thing she knew, Pietro was holding her up and trying to get her to relax.