Summary: In the first chapter.
poorasdirt: Sorry it took so long up dating this time. I've been meaning to sit down and write but haven't found the time. At the moment my family, extended and otherwise, is staying at my house and it's hard to have access to a computer. Luckily I've found the time but not as much as I'd like to edit so there will probably be a few mistakes here and there especially at the end. I don't know when the next chapter will be up since my family is getting ready to move and the computer is on a time limit. I'll try to get another chapter up but between packing, out of town relatives, and general life it might be difficult to do so, just be patient is all I can say. Anyway, I'd like to thank all of you who have reviewed, favorited, and/or alerted this story.
Disclaimer: I own nothing you don't recognize as mine, that should be obvious by now.
ENJOY!
"Mère, why exactly are we here again?" Grant asked as he sat on the floor looking bored.
"Dante and Dolph just asked me to pick up some parts. We are not staying here long, besides you can always go look at those build your own robot kits. Who knows? You might actually like one." Bella said looking at a bunch of wires and other electronic parts. The two of them were currently at the mall and had been picking up some things when Bella remembered they had to go to Radio Shack for a few items.
"But mère, you know I don't necessarily like robots. Can I go to Game Stop? It's right over there across the hall." Grant said looking at the video game store. "I've been good and I haven't had a new game in ages. Besides, we have that Xbox 360 but no games for it."
"Very well, but don't get into any trouble." Bella said with a sigh.
"Oui mère, I will be on my utmost best behavior." Grant said with a large grin before taking off to find a few new video games he hadn't yet purchased. Bella sighed wondering not for the first time if video games and boys were like purses and girls. She honestly had yet to meet someone of the male persuasion that didn't own a gaming council or were overly obsessed with sports. She could even recall Jacob had been quite taken with video games when they were younger.
Shaking her head Bella turned back to her task of locating all the electronic components on the list Dolph gave her. She made a mental note that her and Grant would also have to stop at the grocery store before heading back to the house. Just as she got the last of her items and was about to go to the register to purchase them her phone rang. "Hello?" She answered after fishing the phone from out of her coat pocket.
"Bells! I have a question, you know how they say that a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square? Why is that?" An exuberant voice said on the other end making Bella grin happily.
"It's because they're both quadrilaterals Mad, only a square has all equal sides whereas the rectangle can only have its parallel sides being equal to one another." Bella explained the best she could without it sounding too technical.
"See I was right you bastard, nah!" Bella heard faintly on the other end, obviously Mad was talking to someone near her. "Anyway, why did I really call? Oh! Right! Sorry, my mind is just getting back into the groove after an erroneous conversation with Hiro over squares and rectangles. Not that it wasn't educational but by the time we both reached a conclusion my thought process had been muddled."
"Um Mad, not that I don't like to hear your rambling but why did you call? I'm sort of standing in Radio Shack so I probably won't be able to have a long drawn out conversation." Bella interrupted wondering if Mad had gotten her hands on sugar again.
"Well it's like this, you remember a far off long time ago when I told you that I have a stalker here? Guy's name is Daken and all, well he crashed a party I was at to try and kill me. So Hiro and I decided it's about time we split Asia. In any case the two of us are going to be showing up at your doorstep in a week. It would have been sooner but there's a small little something involving a friend I have here that needs to be taken care of. Don't worry it's nothing illegal or anything; I was simply invited to her High School graduation so I feel obligated to attend. I'm sure you understand."
"Course I do, although Dante and Dolph will be pleased to hear you two are on your way. Grant will be happy as well, I don't know if it's because I'm going to let him buy a video game or you showing up though." Bella said with a slight smirk.
"Ah, you wound me Bells, you know the little disaster loves me. You're just jealous I'm better liked than you are." Mad said in a teasing tone.
"Yea, yea, you got your own stalker and everything." Bella said with a snort.
"See it just proves I'm the best and you're just one of the rest."
"Whatever you say Mad, whatever you say. Is that all or do you have any more ground breaking news to tell me?" Bella asked as she made her way to the cash register.
"Nah, nothing important comes to mind, I could go on about my stalker and how outside his odd social behavior reminds me strikingly similar to a male Japanese version of you. Although he's only half Japanese, I found that out the other day. He's also got these odd bone-like claws that come out of his knuckles, well two out of his knuckles a third comes from the underside of his wrist. Scared the crap out of me the first time but I've grown used to it. I also could go on about this cute Japanese girl Hiro's been snooping around."
"I do not snoop!" A voice off in the background called in irritated Japanese making Bella smile.
"Oh, you so do snoop, or more like sniff. I swear you circled the poor girl at least three times after meeting her. Honestly I don't really care what you do, or who you do, in your free time but try to be more discrete about it." Mad called back away from the phone. "Grumble all you like Hiro-chan but you know I'm right."
"Mad, I have to go. I'll see you two at the end of the week." Bella said with a chuckle just hearing the oncoming fight between her two friends.
"Yep, love you lots and tell the others I send my love as well. Hiro says you'll be in his dreams and- ACK!"
Bella smiled she ended the call and put away her phone. From how the call ended she had no doubt Mad was currently dealing with a very annoyed Hiro. As Bella finished paying for her purchases she made a mental note to call Felix later. She was slightly worried about Madison's stalker; she had to make sure that Daken wouldn't be too much of a threat to her friend. Putting those thoughts aside she turned to collect her wayward son, who from the looks of it was trying to buy the whole game store. Sighing she went to take charge before Grant spent all his money on video games…again.
An hour later, after a long drawn out discussion about video games and their value, Bella and Grant pulled into the parking lot of the local grocery store. The two went in to gather up the last things on their list before they went home. The trip was as uneventful as ever up until they made it to the ice cream section. "Mère can we have mint chocolate chip?" Grant asked pointing at the ice cream he wanted.
"Sure, I don't see why not." Bella said after a minute of thought. Grant gave a small cheer as he opened up the cooler and started to fish out his chosen ice cream. Meanwhile, Bella was contemplating if she wanted Haagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry's, before suddenly an argument erupted behind both mutants. Quickly she grabbed two of her favorite flavors from both brands and turned around. As she expected from the almost growling argument, there stood Sabertooth and Wolverine. "Either you two absolutely hate each other or you're absolutely infatuated with one another." She commented with her hands on her hips. Grant stood nearby snickering.
"What?" Both men growled at her and she fought not to growl in return.
"Well it seems whenever I see you two you're arguing like an old couple." Bella said with the slightest of smirks on her lips. Oh, after the whole book signing incident a month ago she had seen both men from afar on a few occasions. The two were usually at each other's throats or at the very least glaring hatefully at one another. She wondered how their relationship would differ if they knew their true history together. She had a feeling whatever happened to Logan's memories also happened to Sabertooth but not in quite a dramatic fashion.
"We don't argue like an old couple." Logan snarled lightly with a frown.
"Okay fine, you don't argue like an old couple, at the very least you act like jealous over baring brothers." Bella amended not wanting to think how wrong it would be if the two of them actually were a couple.
"Whatever, did you want something?" Sabertooth nearly snarled only for Bella to beam at him and hold up two cartons of ice cream.
"Pick one, I can't seem to decide myself and I love both of them so I might as well get a second opinion since your there." Bella said trying not to laugh hysterically at their incredulous faces. Grant wasn't as forgiving and was currently leaning against her cart holding his sides as he laughed at them.
"Why not buy both if you like them both?" Logan asked making Bella roll her eyes at him.
"Because, I'm only going to buy one; that should be obvious, unless you're a blonde like him." Bella said casually motioning to Sabertooth who was giving her with completely blank look on his face suggesting he had no idea what was going on. Although she figured that could just be his thinking face or something.
"Well I don't know, just pick one." Logan said while Sabertooth looked closer at the selections.
Bella let out a put upon sigh. "Honestly, if it were that easy I would. But it's not, it's hard to decide which one I want and my sweet tooth isn't offering an opinion. Have you ever had to decide which sweet you wanted more?"
"I don't eat a lot of sweet food." Logan said with a shrug as both ignored Sabertooth sniffing the containers.
"So I can gather. You strike me as someone who has a healthy life style outside your vices which are probably the common ones of smoking and drinking alcohol. You really do seem like the type of guy that would be up for a few bears or a night at a bar." Bella said looking him up and down. "Definitely, you got the whole biker thing going for you."
"So says the woman who earns her money by exercising her imagination. I'm actually surprised to admit you're right, though as far as healthy lifestyle goes I'm more of a school gym teacher than a ruffian." Logan said with a snort.
"Now that… I did not see coming." Bella conceded before turning to Sabertooth. "Verdict?"
"Ben & Jerry's." Sabertooth said pointing to the desired ice cream.
"Okay, thank you." Bella said putting the chosen container into her cart. Grant was now as composed as he was going to get and waiting to see what his mother was up to. "If you don't mind me asking, are you a mutant by chance?"
"How did you know?" Sabertooth nearly growled glaring at her but she was unaffected by it.
"Well like him you strike me as a biker but no one outside of the WWE has that sort of look about them. Kind of like a big ass kitten if you ask me." Bella said with a slight smirk.
"Kitten?" Sabertooth roared making Logan chuckle.
"Oh and don't think I don't suspect you as well. You're not quite a kitten but more along the lines of a puppy." Bella said to Logan who stopped chuckling.
"Puppy?" His reaction was less out of anger and more out of surprise, the affect though was priceless. Both of them were gaping at her with nearly identical looks that it was hard not to say they weren't related in some way.
"Now that I think about it, it does make some sense. You two definitely fight like cats and dogs so it would only be natural for a puppy and kitten to go at it whenever they cross paths." Bella mused mentally laughing as both now glared at her. She gave Grant a small signal and he gave the briefest of nods before starting to pull the cart away unnoticed.
"I am not a puppy!"
"I am not a kitten!" Both yelled simultaneously at her and she pretended to jump in surprise while flinging the nearly forgotten carton of Haagen-Dazs still in her hand down the aisle. She didn't even have to look to know she hit her mark since a female shriek came from one end of the aisle. All three turned to find Rogue currently sprawled out on top of Remy. Bella couldn't have planned that better if she had forewarning. She had known Rogue was trying to get away from Remy who was flirting with her and both were on their way towards the trio. She hadn't anticipated Rogue actually ending up sprawled on top of the Cajun and their skin touching. In a second Rogue was on her feet as if someone had electrocuted her and turned a glare in their direction.
"He did it." Bella said pointing to Sabertooth who was suddenly facing Rogue's anger at getting nailed in the face with an ice cream carton. While Logan was trying to stop Rogue who now had Gambit's powers and was trying to kill Sabertooth, Bella slipped away unnoticed to join Grant who was already halfway across the store. "How about we head home kiddo? If we wait any longer the store might just get destroyed."
"Oui mère." Grant said with a small grin knowing exactly what had happen in the aisle as he was leaving. After checking out the two made it to the car to put away their groceries, it was then and only then something seemed to have exploded in the grocery store.
"So what exactly did you charge?" Bella asked knowing the Acolytes and X-men in the ice cream aisle were probably taken by surprise from the explosion.
"The frozen asparagus." Grant answered dutifully.
"Good boy." Bella said having never really liked asparagus personally something she shared in common with her adopted son.
The days leading up to Madison and Hiro arriving were interesting. They had to go around the house Mad proofing everything so they'd have a house if she got coffee or sugar. Once all the preparations were finished they hung around the house mostly. Grant was engrossed in his video games, Dolph was looking for new recipes he could try, Dante was lazing around enjoying his down time, and Bella was now on the editing phase of her book. So on a quite Sunday the house piece was shattered by the ringing of the doorbell. Bella and Dolph were the only ones up that early in the morning so Bella went to get it while Dolph continued cooking breakfast.
As soon as Bella opened the door she was tackled to the floor by an over enthusiastic silver puddle. "BELLS!" The puddle yelled while Bella was struggling to get out of it.
"Damn it Mad! Pull yourself together and don't soak into my clothes, I actually like these." Bella said trying to push her liquefied friend off of her.
"But I missed you horribly. Hiro is complete dullsville to be around all the time. I don't get the same stimulating conversations with him that I do with you. We really need to work on his social skills." Madison said pulling herself together in Bella's lap. Bella noted that Madison hadn't changed all that much since the last time they were together, they were still around the same height, Madison's pale blonde hair was still in an ankle length braid, her husky blue eyes were still dancing with excitement, and she was still more inclined to wearing white and lots of silver jewelry than anything else. "Hugs!" Madison insisted giving her friend a strong bear hug which Bella returned with a sigh.
"Good, now that this touchy feely moment is over, OFF!" Bella said getting a snicker from Madison who jumped up and offered the brunette a hand. Really Bella wondered if it was a good idea to send Madison off with Hiro in the first place, it seems without a social spring board for the blonde to bounce off of she had gotten just a bit more clingy and hyper. Suddenly as the thought about Hiro struck her she turned to look at the last of their group of vampire hunters.
"Bella-san, it is nice to see you are well." Hiromitsu Choukichi said with a slight bow. The nineteen-year-old was the second youngest of the group if one were to include Grant, and he still had a bit of a teenager air about him. His black hair was long enough to tie into a small ponytail to keep out of his face and his dark brown eyes looked black outside of the right lighting. He was a rather fit individual standing at least as tall as Dolph and usually dressed in Asian style clothes or simple dress shirts and black slacks. As usual his face was a blank mask of cold indifference but Bella could tell he was happy to see her.
They had picked up Hiro just before everyone split up; at the time the seventeen year old was working as a freelance mercenary for two years after his adopted father died. He had happened upon the group as they were taking care of a coven sent to kill them and became intrigued with the existence of vampires. He decided to tag along and soon couldn't think of being anywhere else since the group truly became his second family. He also was a great asset to the group since his adopted father made sure he was well versed in a few styles of martial arts, so he easily helped them with their fighting techniques. But most of all he was one of the few that didn't truly mind watching Grant when Bella wanted to go out since both of the younger boys were practically brothers. Madison figured it was because Hiro couldn't legally go out and party with the rest of them in some of the countries they had gone to and had bonded with the young Cajun.
"It's great to see you both as well. Now come one inside, Dante and Grant should be awake now and we were just going to have breakfast." Bella said ushering her two friends in.
"YES! Dolph's cooking, oh how I missed thee!" Madison said scrambling off towards the kitchen while Bella smiled and Hiro followed the two.
"Tante Mad! Oncle Hiro!" Grant said racing down the stairs happily now fully awake.
"Grant-kun." Hiro greeted with a small smile as the eleven-year-old latched onto him in a bear hug. As soon as Grant let go the flood gates opened and he was rattling off questions like there was no tomorrow. The trio got to the kitchen where Madison got the same greeting from Grant while Hiro and Dolph exchanged greeting nods. It wasn't long after that that Dante teleported down and greeted both of the new comers. Breakfast was filled with idle chatter as the group filled the two in on the situation around Bayville.
"Well I think we should leave soon if we don't want to get anymore caught up with the mutant situation here than we already are. From what you said Bells, Wolverine and Sabertooth might start to be getting suspicious of you." Madison said getting agreeing nods all around.
"Plus now that we're all together we can once again focus on our main goal, finding the Cullens." Dolph put in calmly.
"Si senor Dolph, it is safe to say that the Cullens have not left the North Americas from what we have gathered." Dante said thoughtfully.
"True, what's the situation in Asia?" Bella asked curiously.
"Whatever covens we didn't kill all fled towards Europe by the time we left. They don't seem like they will be returning to the area anytime soon either." Madison said getting a nod from Bella.
"For now at least we should wait on moving, we aren't in any immediate danger and it will give us some time to rest." Bella said thoughtfully. "I asked Felix to check some things and I don't really want to go cross country before the results are back."
"That should work, besides it gives Hiro and me some time to catch up on sleep. I swear if it wasn't a vampire problem it was a mutant one, you'd be surprised how many actual mutants are in Asia and Australia." Madison said while rolling her eyes.
"It's not that surprising Ms. Mad. Asia, especially China, has a very large human population and thus a lot of potential candidates for mutations." Dolph said getting a nod from Madison.
"In any case, let's just enjoy this down time we have while we have it." Bella said getting silent but happy agreements all around. The group really needed some down time to feel human again, it was surprising how much of their humanity they lost from hunting vampires. They all had to rely on their instincts to help them and not think for more than a few seconds about any morals they have about killing humanoid monsters. It would do them all good; now that they were all together and not stressed about one another's health, to simply relax for a while. However Bella knew that now Mad and Hiro were once again with the group it was time to truly end their five year hunt soon. She was done playing games with the Cullens, she was going to get her answers and be done with this mess if it was the last thing she ever did.
YAY! The gang is finally all together and it won't be long before the plot starts to take off. Bella has shown a bit of her devious side this time around and Grant got to blow something up. Not much else to say this time around and sorry if the ending bit seems a bit rushed but again I'm on some pretty bad time crunches for the computer. I'll try not to let it effect my quality but no guaranties, in the mean time:
REVIEW!