WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I know.  I have yet to finish Arcane.  But good ideas tend to keep me up at night.

I thought I'd say thanks to the people who reviewed last story's chapter.  Oh, and review are a little funky, so if you're not here, I'm sorry.

Akai Kah'ghe- *trying to receive thought* I don't know if it's working…..

Dragonet: I'll try not to press you.  *laughs*

Abigail Marie-  More Herman!

Disclaimer:  This fic contains explicit context of things that are real.  These 'real' things are commonly known as life.  So, if it sounds sarcastic, don't take it seriously.  If it sounds dangerous, do not try this at home or at all.  And if it offends you, just. Don't. Read. It.  (oh, and X-men isn't mine)

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Wake up.

I was having a very strange dream.  There were voices all around me.  The most insistent one sounded like Herman……

Wake UP! Up.

In my dream, I was in the forest, staring at dozens of trees.  And in those trees sat teddy-bear size versions of Herman.

Danny!

They all looked at me.  It was really creepy.

Forgive me. Forgive.

I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my ear and sat up fast.  I wasn't in the forest.  I was in my bed at the institute.  And something was hanging off my ponytail.

I reached up and touched something furry.  With big ears. 

"Herman?"

You are awake.  Are.

"Yeah, my ear hurts."  I thought for a minute.  "Did you bite me?"

Yes.  You need to be awake.  The colony is here to speak with you. Speak with you.

I looked up.  There were bats hanging off my ceiling, my dresser, even off Doggy, who was looking a little uneasy.

"What's going on?"

There are others. Others.

They come to hurt! Come.

One flies-

"Hang on." They were all talking at once.  It was hard to decipher what they were all saying.  " Speak one at a time."

There was a whole conversation with clicks and whistles, then one tiny bat fluttered over to sit on my lap.  He chirped at Herman, who was hanging off the front of my T-shirt.  Herman chirped back.  The little bat looked up at me.

They are two legs.  They. Smell is threatening. Smell.

"How many?"  I was beginning to feel a slight twinge of fear too.  "How far away?"

An eighth of the colony.  Eighth.  A quarter of the hunting ways.  Ways.

Okay.  There was eighty in this particular colony.  Or close to eighty.  So that meant about ten people.   The hunting ways was their hunting grounds, and that covered all of Bayville and then some.  Probably about five to ten miles.

"How do you know they're coming here?"

We do not.  Herman does.  Does.

I looked down at him, waiting for an explanation.

They speak of mutants.  Speak. 

"How do you know?"

Always know.  Always.  I watched you.

"Okay."  Now I was scared.  " We're going to see the Professor."

All of them began to flap their wings and chirp.

"No, not all of you.  I need ones that can give me accurate descriptions."

Another conversation went off, then about twenty or so bats flew down to cling to my shirt and shorts.  I looked at the rest.

" Stay here.  I may need you."

We understand.  Stand.  Hurry.

"Doggy."  He looked over at me.  "You'd better come too."

He got up and padded over to me.  I opened the door and walked out.

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I think I may have looked like some horror monster.  I had twenty or so bats hanging off of me, I was walking around a mansion in the dark, in the middle of the night.

So it should have been no surprise to me that Amara turned ghostly white when I walked past her.  I think she might have been getting a midnight snack or something. 

So much for that.

Amara ran back down the hall.  I think she went to wake the others up.

I kept walking.  Professor Xavier's room was at the end of the hall in the west wing.  I was still in the east wing, but making pretty good time considering I had a dog padding beside me and a bunch of bats weighing me down.

When I finally got there, I hesitated.  If he didn't believe me, I didn't want to think f what the bats would do.  If Herman could understand what humans say because he watched me, what would he say to the others about Professor Xavier?

'I would leave that train of thought until after I've heard what you had to say Danny.'

Self-control stopped me from jumping two feet into the air and knocking off all of my little furry friends.

'I'm in the meeting room.  Come over.'

It would have been nice of him to mention that before I walked all the way over here.

I took me less than a minute to get to the central wing to the door of the meeting room.

'Come in.  And have your friends close their eyes.'

I did as he said, after I bid my winged mice to close their eyes. 

When I walked in I heard Ms. Monroe stifle a sharp breath.  I couldn't blame her.  If they weren't my friends I'd find the whole affair seriously creepy.

I took a deep breath.  "My friends say that there are people coming here."

"What kind of people, Doolittle?"  Mr. Logan had a skeptical look on his face.

"Dangerous kinds.  They smell threatening."

"Did they say how many?  Or who they were?"  Ms. Monroe had just saved me from Mr. Logan's questions yet again.  I blanched at the explanation of smelling threatening.

"They said there were about ten.  And I brought the ones who could give descriptions."

"Oh my."

I turned to see Mr. McCoy walk in.  "Danny, did you know your ear is bleeding?"

"Yeah," I looked a little sheepish. "They were trying to wake me up."

"I see."  He gazed intently at the bats.  "May I?"

I reached over to my shoulder where there was a particularly friendly bat and handed it to Mr. McCoy.  It had already been leaning that way, trying to identify his smell.

He let the bat wander around in his palms.  "Remarkable creatures."

"Back to the point-"

I turned back to Mr. Logan.

 "-where are these threatening people?"

"Five to ten miles sir."

Professor Xavier nodded.  "Then we must get ready.  Ororo, please get the children in uniform.  Most of them are up already.  We will stay here and see if we cannot identify the people that are coming."

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"Everyone get dressed!  We may have to defend ourselves."

Amara picked up a hand in the back.

"Yes, Amara?"

"Is Danny alright?  She was being attacked by bats!"

"She's fine.  In fact, she is with Logan, McCoy, and Professor Xavier right now."

"What's going on?"  Jubilee came back, fully dressed yet a bit disheveled.

"It appears that the bats came to give Danny a message.  She is relaying it to the professor."

"Weird."

"That may be so."  Scott walked in.  He was in full uniform, looking fully awake.  "But we can't worry about that now.  Hurry up."

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I was getting tired. And irritated.  So far I had rattled off everything the bats had been telling me, and Mr. Logan and the others just kept looking more and more grim.

It was so annoying.  I wanted to know what difference I was making. 

I wanted to look grim too, darn it.

What happens now? Now.

I glanced down.  Herman was still there.  He hadn't moved except to hook a claw over my collar so he could move to let other bats in.

I reached up a hand carefully (there were bats on my sleeves) and patted him on the head.  He blinked his bright eyes at me and buried his nose into my collar.

Eww.  Bat snot.

There was aloud knock at the door.  "Professor!"  It was Scott.

"Come in."

Scott and the others walked in.  I was so embarrassed.  They were all fully dressed and I was standing around in my pajamas.  And to add to it, I was already being stared at because of my amazing living bat coat.

"I'm glad you're all here.  It seems that Magneto, his Alcolytes, and the brotherhood are coming."

"All of them?  Like, how did that happen?"  Kitty phased through the front people.

"I don't know.  But we'll find out.  We will all meet them.  Go out to the grounds.  Danny, you better go too."

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"May I get dressed first?"

"Of course.  Hurry."

I hurried as fast as one is able carrying twenty-odd bats.  I ran past my creeped out mutant friends (who were even more creeped out when the bat Mr. McCoy had been holding realized I'd been leaving and flew after me) and went to my room.  As soon as I and Doggy got in and I shut the door behind me, my carry-ons flew off to chat with the rest of the colony.

I don't have a real battle suit.  Since my gift requires animals to be around, I'm really useless in the danger room.  Doggy and I tried it once, but Doggy wouldn't leave my side and we both got fried.

We haven't been in there since. 

I've been taking classes, weight lifting and the such, and I can throw a semi-nice right hook.  And when Doggy and I are together we can be very troublesome.

But the fact of the matter was, we couldn't really do anything against anything heavy.

Are you ready?  Ready.

I finished putting on my 'uniform'- a pair of blue jeans, a black long sleeved, Black boots, and gray gloves.  Never know when you're gonna have to pick up something prickly.

I nodded to the bats and finished putting my hair into a braid while they flew out my open window.  I motioned to Doggy and we ran out of my room, down the steps, and out to the grounds outside.

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Danny's first meeting with the Brotherhood and Alcolytes!  Whatever are they here for?

We'll have bat wings,

And rat things,

With Doggy's view,

So please review.