As Ziva charged across the lawn toward the army, she saw a mutant that loosely resembled a cat running toward her. Loosely being the operative word.

Pointy little kitty ears stuck up through the long white furry hair atop his head. The soft-looking, long fur covered his head completely. It was spotty at best over the rest of his body, giving him the appearance of an alley cat who lost one too many fights. His facial features had the pushed in qualities of a Persian. It was a little disturbing on a human. When he came at her, he was all snarls and claws. She grinned, allowing herself to picture A'Cadia for a moment.

She snapped her eyes over to Stevie where he ran beside her. "Ball, Stevie, our new friend needs a toy to play with!"

With a wicked little grin, he shoved a finger up his nose and came out with the most disgusting looking little cat toy one would ever want to witness. He lobbed the golf ball-sized booger at the cat man.

Ziva let loose with a whoop when kitty boy chased after his new booger kitty toy. She hollered again when he dropped to the ground and began rolling around on his back trying to dislodge the booger ball from his front paws, or hands, she wasn't certain. It was a no-go; the booger ball was stuck fast. When he kicked at it with his back paws they also became stuck.

Stevie gave her a fat grin. "He isn't getting out of that one. I made sure it was extra sticky."

"Gross, but highly effective," she replied with a smirk.

Up ahead she saw two mutants go down for no apparent reason. Must be Craig with Mellissa by his side, she decided. A'Cadia swept through her line of sight, Angela clinging to her back like a little tick. As they watched, A'Cadia held up a hand, claws out, Angela let free with a blast that ricocheted off the three adamantium claws and blasted anyone standing nearby. Effective. A'Cadia's idea certainly helped Angela with her ability to properly aim her blasts.

"Ziva!" Stevie screamed.

She spun and found herself face-to-face with ... she stopped and blinked. "You?"

Buck sighed, stacked a hand on one hip, and glared at her. He couldn't pull off the hand on the hip thing without appearing girly. "Yes, me. What am I not worthy of being scared of?"

She blinked again. Wannabe? A mutant. She couldn't figure out why her mutant radar hadn't told her he was a mutant. Craig. She wanted to curse him. With his hands all over her at the school, she'd been distracted and confused.

"You're a mutant?"

He gave an exasperated sigh. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

Beside her, Stevie rolled his eyes. "Can I play his theme song now?"

"Not now, Stevie!" She waved a hand at him. "Wait, you knew he was a mutant?" She glared at Stevie.

"No, but you mentioned he was at the high school with the gang." He shrugged. "We picked out a song, ya know just in the event and all." He shrugged again.

Buck glowered at them. "Hello, still here. Are you two done?"

Ziva shook her head at Stevie and turned back to Buck. "Right so, mutant. What exactly is your power?"

He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Oh, baby, you are going to love my power."

"Doubt it, but hit me with your best shot," she told him.

He took a step toward her and simply looked her in the eye.

Stevie frowned and looked from Buck to Ziva and back. Nothing. Nada. Zip. He frowned as Buck took a step back with a grin. "Don't get it," Stevie said.

Buck shot him a look. "Of course, you wouldn't, kid, you're too young. Shame my power won't work on you. Pardon me, but my orders were to get her and the other chick."

Stevie scratched at his head. "Ziva?" She blinked slowly and gave him a vacant smile.

Buck laughed loudly. "She ain't gonna answer you, kid. Me on the other hand," he grabbed her hand and smiled while talking to her, "Ziva, baby, it's time to leave."

"Sure thing, Buck, where are we going?" Her voice came out monotone and emotionless.

Stevie's mouth fell open in shock. "Ziva!" He slapped her leg. She didn't even yell at him or threaten to zap him.

Buck laughed, turned away, and tugged Ziva along with him.

Stevie bolted away; he had to find help before they got far. He tripped over nothing and sprawled to the ground.

"Ow! Stevie watch where you're going! Oh, wait I'm invisible, you can't watch where you're going," Mellissa said.

He sat up and rubbed at his nose. "Craig? Is Craig with you?"

"Yeah, I'm here. What's up?"

"That Buck guy did something to Ziva, he stared into her eyes and she got all weird and she wouldn't listen to me and he grabbed her hand and walked off with her!"

Craig suddenly appeared right in front of him. "He did what?"

"I don't know what he did! He said I wouldn't understand it, that I was too young! He's taking her away, Craig!" Stevie wailed, pointing across the lawn to where Buck was leading Ziva away.

Craig turned and sprinted toward Ziva. He wasn't going to let that little wannabe snot take Ziva away!

Barbie skipped up in front of him. "Hello, Craig!" she said in a cheerfully annoying voice.

"Go away, Barbie!" he snarled as he tried to dance around her.

"Oh, I can't do that. If I did, you'd go try and stop Buck from taking Ziva to Lenny. See, I can't allow you to do that. So, I have to take you away." She snatched his hand up with a smile that held more wattage than Ziva could ever produce, something along the lines of a used car salesman.

Craig blinked as things went momentarily black; he looked around when things cleared. "Where are we?"

Barbie was brushing her hair back into place with one hand. "Mall of America."

"What?"

"Well, I had to take you somewhere and I figured as long as I had to get you out of there I might as well go somewhere I wanted to go." She shrugged, gave him a little wave, and wandered off.

Great now he had to figure out how in the hell he was going to get back to the school. This was fabulous, he hadn't exactly grabbed his wallet when Lenny attacked. Come to think of it, he didn't have his cell phone either. He wondered if someone would lend him a phone if he asked.

***

Stevie blinked and stared at the spot where Craig had been moments ago and began to seriously panic. Buck and Ziva were gone, now Barbie had taken Craig somewhere. This was not going as planned!

"Mellissa!" he screamed.

"Yeah?" an invisible Mellissa said from beside him.

"Craig is gone! We've lost Ziva and Craig!"

"We're in deep poop then," she answered.

"No kidding!" he snapped at her as he looked around. Skylar was still stomping people with the Professor Xavier statue. A'Cadia and Angela were still kicking butt as well. But without Ziva and Craig, they were going to lose serious ground soon.

Mellissa appeared beside him. She held up her hands in front of her face. "Crap I'm visible."

"Don't let Storm hear you say crap."

"She isn't even here!" Mellissa scowled at him.

"We need to retreat and do it fast before Lenny takes any more of our friends."

"Or god forbid our cooooouch!" Mellissa said worriedly.

"I'll get A'Cadia and Angela, you go get Skylar," Stevie said quickly.

Mellissa nodded and they both took off at a run, heading in opposite directions across the lawn.

Stevie came dancing up beside A'Cadia, where she and Angela fought. "We need to go, A'Cadia! They took Craig and Ziva! We have to retreat to the school!"

A'Cadia balked, but nodded and spun around, heading back to the school building, with Angela throwing wild plasma blasts back at Lenny's army.

Mellissa ran up and skipped around the legs of the Professor Xavier statue, yelling up at Skylar. "Skylar! We have to get back they nabbed Ziva and Craig! I repeat the lovebirds have been cooked!"

Skylar popped out of the statue looking pale. "Craig and Ziva?"

Mellissa nodded. "Yeah."

They turned and ran back toward the school, following the others. They regrouped inside the school.

"Stevie, tell us what happened," A'Cadia urged him.

He told them how Buck had taken Ziva and then how Barbie had whisked Craig away.

"We know Lenny wanted Ziva from the start. You can bet he was planning on snatching me if he could as well. He wasn't exactly pleased when I told him I'd get my answers from you guys if I had to. As for Craig, well, he probably sent Barbie to dump him somewhere so he couldn't interfere. Knowing him he'll find his way back here, I'm sure."

Skylar gave a tiny nod, though she looked shell-shocked.

Stevie gave a wail worthy of a fangirl. "I let him take her! I'm unworthy! I should be tossed out of the X-Men!"

"You aren't even in the X-Men," A'Cadia told him.

He gave a dramatic sniffle and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Right, see!"

Mellissa rolled her eyes. "None of this matters! We have to go find Ziva! We can't let Lenny have her!"

A'Cadia sighed heavily. "As much as I hate to admit it, the elf is right."

Mellissa threw her an evil look but nodded.

"Let's try and figure out where Lenny might have gone. We'll look for Craig as well. We can regroup, together we can do this, we're a team." Skylar looked at all of them and there were nods all around.

Slowly theydispersed, each heading off to try and do their part to get theirmissing team members back.