"Wake up."

"Go away."

"I said wake up."

"And I said go away."

"Bug, you have to go to school. You're starting your advanced classes today."

"I don't feel like going. I'm smarter than the sixth graders and they expect me to fit in well in the nerd classes?"

Zero frowned and grabbed Bugler around the middle and pulled him out of bed.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Zero told him.

"Oh, I feel ill." Bugler said.

"Sure you do." Zero said and put him down. "Get dressed or I'm going to have to hurt you."

Zero left the room and Bugler went tiredly to his dresser. He loved to learn, but everything was just to easy for him. He practically scoffed at the idea of the advanced copies. He read Moby Dick in a day and he doubted any of his new classmates had done the same. He hated dumbing himself down for school.

Bugler threw on some clothes and went down the ladder that led to the lower section of their barn home.

He walked into the kitchen area and saw something new. A radio.

"Where'd that radio come from?" He asked as he sat at the table.

"I made it." Fixit said. "It only gets one channel, but it's good music."

"Do you want Twinkies and Sprite or Cheetos and Coke?" Bullet asked.

"Twinkies." Bugler answered. Bullet tossed him the package of Twinkies and a can of Sprite. "I just love fine dining."

"Don't we all?" Zero said and took a bite of his candle toast.

"I'm not catching a ride today." Ralph said.

"Why not?" Bullet asked.

"I have a bike now." Ralph said. "I've been saving up and I bought one yesterday. And it is for my use *only*."

She added the last part with a glare at Zero. Her things always somehow ended up in his hands and she didn't like it.

"We better get moving." Bullet said.

Bugler sighed and everyone looked at him.

"I thought you liked school." Fixit said.

"Well, I do." Bugler told them. "But it gets really boring. I need to learn a little faster, but everything goes so slow."

"That's why we got you in the advanced classes." Ralph said.

"Advanced for normal kids." Bugler said. "I'm not exactly the most normal of all the children in the world."

"Oh, you got that right."

Everyone turned to see who was there.

"What do you want?" Zero asked.

"Hey, can't a brother drop in on family?"

"Not when he left them behind to save his own ass." Ralph said.

"I'm hurt."

"You should be." Bullet said.

Bugler sat back and watched everyone glare at Elliot. Elliot was the brother everybody loved to hate; always thinking of himself and putting everyone else in danger.

"Why're you here?" Zero asked.

"I got in a little trouble in California and I need somewhere to hide out for a little while." Elliot said.

"What kind of trouble?" Bullet asked.

"Well..."

"Tell us or I'll personally kick your ass to the Canadian border." Ralph said.

"Alright. Geez, you haven't changed." Elliot said. Ralph glared and he continued. "I may have been caught stealing and dealing."

"What?" Bullet exclaimed.

"I stole a few things." Elliot said. "TVs, radios, medication, drugs..."

"Ya know, we've got this "no helping bad people" rule." Ralph said. "Sorry."

"Come on, Bullet." Elliot said. "I'm your brother. Remember how close we were, huh? Are you gonna just throw me out like that?"

"Yes."

Elliot looked taken aback.

"Fine." Elliot said. "You wont help me, I might as well go help White take down your asses."

Elliot left with an angry look.

"Do you think he'll do it?" Zero asked.

"He doesn't have the guts. He knows White'll kill him." Bullet said.

"Are you sure?" Fixit asked. "Elliot was always a little unstable."

"I can't let him die." Bullet said and started to walk out of the kitchen, but Zero grabbed his arm.

"He'd let you die, you know."

"I know." Bullet said and left the kitchen. Zero turned to the others.

"Nobody's going anywhere today." Zero said.

*****

"Elliot!"

Elliot turned toward Bullet and looked at him angrily.

"What?" He snapped.

"You can't go to White." Bullet said. "He'll kill you."

"I know." Elliot said. "I just don't have anywhere to go except for here and Ness... and Ness hates me."

"Ness hates you? But you were her favorite brother." Bullet said.

"Now she hates me all because I brought trouble to her once." Elliot said. "I didn't mean to. They followed me."

"Look, you can stay here for today." Bullet offered. Elliot took a step back.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna head to New York." Elliot said. "Start new."

"Come on, just today." Bullet said.

"No, I'm just gonna get going." Elliot said. "I can't be around those guys, they hate me almost as much as I hate myself."

Bullet didn't know what to say.

"Bye." Elliot said then walked off. When Bullet could no longer see him, he went back inside.


Two hands grabbed Elliot by the shoulders and pulled him into the small patch of woods. Two camouflaged Manticore soldiers had him.

"Easy guys!" Elliot said and broke from their grip.

"We're just making sure the deal goes through." One of the soldiers said.

"Hey, I don't go back on deals." Elliot said. "Tell White he'll have his five Xs."



A/N: I hope to have this finished soon. I'm really trying to get it done and it has become priority one on my writing list.