I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.
--Steven Wright

Rogue77: I can only say that he may show up. To say more might ruin the story.

Dragonet:I thought that it might be a little too much for her to deal with in her state. I mean, while I love the Acolytes to pieces, Putting them in may have totally cluttered the story, and it was mostly about her anyway.

*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*^*^*^*

"Oh! Look, apartment for rent! Bathrooms, three rooms, utilities, and only about six hundred a month!"

"In New York? What's the catch animal girl?"

"Technically it's in New Jersey."

"EVIL!" Stray yelled at the top of his lungs.  People passing by us started whispering into their hands.

Apartment hunting. A necessary chore for our lifestyle. I went back to reading the paper. Daria had the other half with Gepetto tucked under her arm. He was playing dead. Or puppet.

And Stray was being himself. He was fiddling with a walkie-talkie, trying to raise our other two pals.

This is the way it's always been. We've never stayed for too long in one place, never tried to get into any meaningful relationships within or without the group.

And then there was business.

I suppose one could say we live on the out fringes of the law. Smuggling, not drugs, and a little bit of scamming, some other things here and there.  And a little blackmail.

But not enough to get caught.

After all, how would we be able to pay for our food and the dozen rooms Stray kept blowing up?

"Ugh. Have you seen the dating classifieds?" Daria said as she read the section.

"I thought you guys were looking in the housing classifieds." Stray pointed out.

"You aren't looking for anything, so shut up." Snapped Daria.

"Hay Daria, that guy is looking at you." I said nodding to a guy down the street. She looked.

"Gross! That guy has to be fifty years old, Dann!"

"Well, I never said the age. And it did get you two out of your spat. We going with roach motel Jersey apartment?"

"It has roaches? Now I'm grossed out!" Stray complained.

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"This new information on these mutants is most disconcerting. Cerebro didn't pick up any of their signatures." Professor Xavier said worriedly.

"Could Cerebro have malfunctioned? I mean, several of them were using their powers in plain sight, and I'll bet that the others were mutants too." Jean said.

"It is possible, though about the time you said it happened, several blips showed up on Cerebro but did not give information. It is possible that they are so in control of their powers that they are able to physically subdue their own signatures."

"How is that possible?" Scott wondered aloud.

"You do it as well, Scott, even though you don't realize it. The more mental control there is over the power, the harder it can become to spot, even with Cerebro."

Jean shook her head. "They couldn't have been older than us, and without your supervision, how could they have progressed so far?"

"While you flatter me with the comment, Jean, I'm sure that others could do the job just as well. And besides, the situation and lifestyle may attribute as well. We'll just have to wait and hope we can find them again."

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"So this is what you picked out? Couldn't you have picked one in New York?" Buddy asked me as I wrapped up another ice pack to press against Julian's ears.

"So sue me. It's close enough. You guys want to explain to me again why Julian is getting ice packs shoved down his ears courtesy of yours truly?"

"Stray and his gum and string walkie-talkie caught a high frequency when he called and Julian just happened to pick up."

"Figures."

"Hey, we thought you guys were gonna get arrested, but did you? No. See, that's something that didn't figure." Julian grumbled sorely.

Daria and I had nabbed the biggest room, calling feminine rights. And extra baggage in the way of a puppet and three dogs.  Julian got his own room as he tends to kick in his sleep, and his kick in turn tend to send people through walls.

Stray learned that the hardest way imaginable.

So Buddy and Stray were going to share a room.

Sometimes I wonder if Buddy didn't go through some training that made him impervious to fear.

"LOOK! I CAN EXPLODE THIS MICROWAVE IF I SET THE HEAT UP THREE HUNDRED PERCENT!"

The defense rests.

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"Business espionage? Sounds like small potatoes." Brain Wave said as Rampage outlined the plan.

"Yes, but they're paying us a bundle. This new microchip technology that the business in question will revolutionize the computers we know, making them faster and more efficient. That would be detrimental to our buyers." Rampage said.

"And what about the Rat?"

"If she shows up, you have my permission to blow her head off. But until then, forget about her and deal with the problem at hand. Now, Gaptran Corp. is our target."

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"Gaptran Corp?...Really…How much again?...Okay, let me get the others in on this. HEY GUYS!"

"What? Has our mysterious contact come bearing good news?" Stray asked.  He and the others were playing poker.

"Better. He got us a job. Did you guys look at my hand?"

"What were we supposed to do? It was unguarded. So what's the scoop?" Gepetto said as he snuck a peek at Daria's hand, who returned the favor by whacking him on the head with a newspaper.

"Guard duty. They're paying a bundle. What do you guys say?"

"Count me in. You know they have some of the most cutting edge tech there?" Stray grinned.

"Yeah, we'll take it." I said to the receiver.

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Hmm…Short chapter.

Doggy is taking the reviews again!