Shout Outs!

Rogue77: How cute! I think puppies are so cute, but my dogs are just as cute. What kind of dog is it?

Dragonet: Have a cookie. *gives cookie* I don't know where your sock is. I don't know, probably not. Hezibah wanted to go home, and having a hyena in this story is a little irrelevant. I don't know. I really don't know. Wow. Those were a lot of questions.

Raliena: I know I'd probably be like that. I'm glad you like the plushies.

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The Mountain is hidden deep in the Underground.

Quite literally, actually.

The Mountain is actually a giant pit, of which you can only get to by tunnels.

We had been walking down winding tunnels for about half a day. The tunnels started above us, in the sewer systems, which most thankfully did not traffic raw sewage. It was mostly dry. There was a hidden access tunnel there that opened down below, into the catacomb of tunnels.

To anyone who didn't know the way, these tunnels were a huge deathtrap. Of course, there wasn't much chance of that, as the above tunnel had been roped off long ago.

We turned down another tunnel, and came into sight of a couple iron clad doors.

"Love what they've done to the place. Iron gray is such the color." Stray quipped. I grinned and called out.

"Hey! Bouncer! Let us in!"

"Don't call me Bouncer. My name is Minotaur!" Someone huffed behind us. I turned around to see a big mutant, that looked remarkably like, well, a minotaur. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt.

"How did you get behind us?"

"I have my ways."

The door opened and I looked around to see an orange skinned mutant poke his head out. This was a real orange. Like road cone orange.

"Are you done walking? I wanna get back!"

I snorted. "Ways, hunh?"

Minotaur rolled his eyes. "State your business."

"Pleasure."

"Fun."

"Peace."

"Blowing stuff up."

"Now THERE'S a conflict of interests." Daria laughed.

"If it wasn't you, Stray, I'd throw you all out." Minotaur sniffed. "Go on in. But don't cause trouble! Who's your group leader?"

"We are individual thinking units."

"Except for Stray. He has to have a brain to think."

"HEY!"

"Danny is." Buddy pointed at me.

"Again?" I groaned. "I was a few times ago!"

"Well, you just have to be again, besides, everyone likes you."

"They do not."

"For my purposes they do."

"Buddy!"

"Are you two done?" Minotaur huffed.

"Yeah, yeah. It's me. Can we go?"

He glared at me but nodded. We walked on inside, passing the orange mutant, whom also had orange hair.

"What's going on Camouflage?"

"Camo. Nothing much, Danny. The whole groups here. And Mr. Super's team."

"So all hell is breaking loose."

"Naw, they're being pretty good about keeping their peace."

"Cool. See ya."

"See ya!"

I walked with the rest of my group into the hall behind the doors. At the end of this hall was another set of doors. As I advanced, I heard music on the other side.

I stayed my hand at the handle.

"Now we're going to behave, right?"

"No." Stray grinned.

"I expect it from him. Well, let's have fun." I pushed the door open.

Loud music hit us like a shock wave.

"Keep your ears down Julian!" Daria yelled over the music, which was trying to drown her out.

"What?" He yelled back. His ears were flat across his back.

"Dance? I'd love too!" She dragged the poor mutant off, in which I suspect she was hearing what she wanted too. I just laughed. Stray and Buddy took off in different directions. Arcane and I with my dogs took off into the lower tunnels to get away from the noise.

Well away from the noise, well, sort of, it kind of stuck everywhere, Arcane and I separated. He had to go talk with some of his contacts.

Contacts like Arcane are a special bunch. As far as the Underground goes, they're a version of equalizers, pulling mutants out of bad situations, taking out the opposition, and sometimes neutralizing the opposing force. They were the most respected and most feared of them all. And, like Arcane, they kept pretty much to themselves, forming very few ties except amongst themselves.

Arcane and his associates are known as Paladins, though the means they use to get what they want aren't always reminiscent of a gallant white knight.

Cassius and Brutus went with Arcane, even though he probably didn't want them to. The twins went where they wanted, and he learned that long ago, just like everyone else. And I wanted to make sure everything went okay. Some mutants weren't as nice as others.

Doggy and I trotted down the tunnel, looking for some people we knew.

Doggy has always been with me, far longer than the twins. He was my best friend, and the person I would trust with my life.

A loud clanging sound caught his attention before I could hear it, but I knew what it was.

Though I don't mean to, I always pick up things from the minds of animals. I've never been able to control it, but I've managed to tone it down to the point where they usually don't know it.  It's almost as if I know what they experience all the time. In fact, it's one of the ways I fight. If there's enough animals around, I use the signals I pick up from animal minds to display an uncanny fighting ability. That doesn't mean I'm strong like a tiger if I hear his thoughts though. And I'm certainly not as fast as Doggy.

But it does give me an unusual advantage.

"Who's that?" I asked to no one. Doggy tilted his head to the side, as if actually considering my question.

"Let's go find out, eh?" I said. Doggy wagged his tail.

I walked down the rest of the tunnel, and at the end I heard myself the clanking sound.

The tunnel opened up to a sort of gym. The lone inhabitant was a guy in a tank top, hitting a punching back made of old scrap metal.  He was fairly tall, with medium length black hair, that ended a little below his ears. He was thin, yet all the muscles he had were as tightly coiled as a spring, like he had been fighting most of his life. As he punched, I could see corded muscle down his arms. But I knew that super strength wasn't actually his mutant power. And even though I couldn't see his eyes, I knew they were a purple color. Not a dazzling violet or pale lavender, just purple. A person could mistake them for brown if they didn't get a good look.

"Eeeevaan." I drawled. He looked up, running a hair through his hair to push it out of his eyes.

He was a good looking guy. Maybe not an Adonis, but a lot better than most. Quite a nice sight.

"Ivan. You're putting way too many vowels in it."

"Yeah, but if I said it the way it's spelled, you get mad at me, I just wanted to make sure I got it right this time."

"So I do. It's about time we saw each other again. If I had to stay here with only Mr. Stupid hanging around, I'd go mad."

"So leave. Mr. Super wouldn't follow you."

"But that's like admitting defeat. It doesn't make sense."

"I'll bet." I said wryly. "I've got a question for you. How did your accent get so good?"

"You don't know how many times I've heard that," he said back.

Ivan Korzenki. A Russian immigrant. I don't know how long he's been wandering around in the states, but it's been a while. He looks to me to be about twenty three. His accent is so good; a person could mistake him for a native. Except for when he gets in a cussing match with Mr. Super. I've heard some pretty creative threats.

"It's been awhile since we last saw each other, how is your style doing?" He asked slyly.

"Pretty good. But I probably won't be up to your level."

"Not many are. Come on, I want to see what you've got." He motioned me over.

My clothes were black pants and a grey hoodie. I pulled off the hoodie, straightened my white shirt, and took a fighting stance.

"Shall we?"

"You want a handicap, old man?" I teased. Then I ducked because Ivan shifted his weight and did a roundhouse kick.

"I don't need a handicap. You?"

"Not on your life." I blocked a low kick aimed for my stomach and shot a fist toward his ribs, which he blocked easily. This was just a warm up.

"Well, you aren't any worse." He laughed. Then things got serious.

I leaped backwards as he punched out. I rolled to the side and caught his arm as he went to catch mine. He used that to pull me back into range of his other arm, which I ducked and tried to hit him in the ribs again. He blocked with his thigh.

"You could have hit me in the face and I wouldn't have been able to stop you. Stop going for the side!"

"But the face is so pretty." I teased as I kneed him in the side.

"Ooof!" The air was knocked out of me as he pulled the same trick. We broke apart to catch our breaths. He recovered first.

Ivan is a street fighter. He has been ever since I first met him, when even then he was an old hand.

I caught my breath and tried to catch him of guard with a spinning kick. He dropped under the attack and tripped me by kicking out my other leg, knocking me forward right into his arms.

"You're being soft on me."

"So are you." Ivan said innocently. He helped me back to my feet.  "I'm glad to see you, Dann."

"Me too." I said as I dropped down and tripped him.

"Ouch."

"Yep." I helped him back up.

"I should've known you'd do that. You use cunning rather than brawn." He grumbled. I crossed my arms.

"Admit it, you let me do that."

"True."

"Why you!"

"What? I was agreeing with you!" He laughed.

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Hmmm…This chapter focused on Danny and The Mountain.

Minotaur will take the reviews! Remember, his name isn't Bouncer!