Disclaimer:  Got to the first chapter's disclaimer.  Ditto.

Akai Kah'ghe:  Perhaps it has.  That means….I have no idea.

Laureate:  I think my little sun spider has become an unofficial character.  And he's still on the loose in mutie manor.  As for Romance, we'll just have to see, eh?

Flamingo1:  Well, the collar and telling everyone she's an African breed.  Hezibah cannot take reviews yet.  She keeps wanting to eat them.  You should have seen what she did to one of my other stories.   Had to rewrite the entire thing.

hnh:  That's…interesting to know.  I had no idea that was even a reason to get banned.  Very interesting.

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"Can't you shut that thing up?!"

"Oh, yeah, let's wake up the hyena.  We know she'll be so understanding."

Allow me to be frank.  Hezibah snores.  Loudly.  And it was making everyone else a little irritated.  As for me, I thought it was kind of funny.  I have a snoring hyena on the seat next to me.

But then again, I was in an impeccably good mood.  We were in Kansas.  There's no place like home, Danny. I managed to talk my friends into stopping by my house.  What great fun!

"I'm gonna snap if your wally don't stop snorin' sheilah."  John had his shoulder's hunched forward.  He was sitting right in front of Hezibah, getting the full effect.  I feel sorry for him.  Sorta. 

"Ah wonder how your family gonna react to us, Ah mean we're kinda droppin' in unannounced."  Sam had somehow discovered how to block out the horrendous noise that is Hezibah.

"Well, they'll be glad to see me.  I don't know about the rest of you."  I said happily.  I saw a couple of glares, but I blissfully ignored them.

"How did she talk us into this?"  Lance muttered to Arcane, who was still driving.

"Feminine charm?"

"How do you figure?"  Okay, that was a little mean.  If I weren't so happy about going home I'd sic Doggy on that rock tumbling goat-boy. 

Hezibah let out a tremendous snore that just about deafened me.  Wanda and Rogue started snickering.  Ray was keeping his mouth covered.  John was hitting his head on the seat in front of him, much to the Rogue's dismay.

Hezibah looked up groggily.

Hezibah wonders why man is hitting his head.

(Probably has a problem)

Hezibah gathered that.

John stopped hitting his head when he realized Hezibah wasn't snoring any more.  He turned to glare at me for not saying anything, but ended up looking puzzled because I was still grinning at being able to visit home.  I hadn't gone home since I got to the institute.  This was my present to myself.  And everyone else's expense, yes, but I'm sure they'll get over it.  Then I realized something.

"Um…guys?  Let's not mention anything about the robots.  Or the cops.  Or anything else for that matter."

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"Kurt!"

"Vhy is everyone yelling at ze fuzzy von?"

"That spider was here!  You put it here didn't you?!"

"Jean!  I did not!"

Scott poked his head out of his room.  Jean, Amara, and Jubes were all glaring at Kurt.  The fuzzy one was trying to defend himself.

"Me?  I vouldn't even touch zat thing!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

"Wolverine, Kurt put the bug in our room!"

"No he didn't.  Sam did."

"…." The girls just stared at him as Kurt bamphed away.

"What?"

"You didn't stop him?!"

Logan just shook his head and walked off.  Scott was about to shut his door when Jean caught it.

"Why don't you come to the park with me?" 

"I don't know Jean.  There's a lot that needs to be done and-"

"And you need to relax.  Come on! It'll be fun."  She seized his arm and propelled him to the downstairs.

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"DANNY!!!!"

The first thing I saw was my mom before she bear hugged me.  That woman must have some mutant gene in her, cause she was just about choking me to death. 

"Mom…air…." I managed to gasp out. She quickly let me go.  Then she went on a tirade about my clothes.

"My goodness!  WHAT are you wearing?!?  It has spikes and buckles…Why didn't you call?  Who are your friends?  Oh, your father will be home soon, why aren't you at the institute?  Why are you limping?  WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN INTO?"

Behold the wrath of mom.

"Um…Would you believe me if I told you we did this cross country hike and got lost?"

"No."

"Oh."

"Anee!!!!"  I turned around to see the entire brigade hauling towards me.  Jared was in the lead.  He was getting big.  He latched onto my leg whilst the others latched everywhere else.  My favorite leeches.

"Danny, who are those guys?"

"Danny, we missed you!"

"Danny, where do babies come from?"  I just stared at that brunette.  She gave me an innocent look.

"What makes you think I would know?"

"Chrissy said you would."  I groaned.  Chrissy.  My least favorite oldest sister.  She had always looked down her nose at me.

Perhaps I should introduce my younger siblings.  We have Dianne and Dena, the twins, who were brunettes, Sue, a blonde, Angie, another brunette, Andrea, a blonde, and Cameron, who was a brunette.  We have many brunettes in my family.  Then there is Jared, a little blonde haired boy.  I'm one of about ten kids.  Talk about a big family.  My mom got married young.  Donnie and Chrissy were my older siblings. 

I don't think they like me all that much.

"Yeah well, Chrissy probably knows better than I do."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."  Oh no.  The evil is here.

Chrissy is, for lack of a better word, perfect. She has blonde hair, sparkling green eyes, great looks, the works.

She has to be an alien.  I will uncover the truth.

"So, I heard you were a mutant. Are these," She kinda waved her hand at my friends, as if they weren't good enough to talk too. "Your little friends?"

"I'd hardly call us little," Wanda hissed at her.  My mom swiftly broke in. 

"So?  Are you going to tell me what happened?"  She gave me a hard gaze.  I managed to hold up, then I wilted. Might as well tell her and get it over with."

"Can we go inside and talk?"

"Of course.  We'll use the living room.  We don't have enough chairs, some of your friends have to sit on the floor."

"Okay."  I sighed a little in relief.  Thank goodness for country hospitality.  At least she'd let them in.

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It took about a half hour for everybody to get situated.  Dad got home.  He has been giving Arcane death glares the entire time, though I don't know why. Chrissy sat next to my mother.  Probably there to give moral support because I was such a delinquent.

"Where do I begin?"  I asked with a nervous little laugh.  All of my little siblings were playing with the 'dogs'.  I cringe at how my mother will react when I tell her Hezibah is a hyena.  She doesn't even trust Doggy.

"At the beginning, obviously!"  Chrissy said a little snootily.  In the corner of my eye I saw both Rogue and Wanda glaring daggers at her.

The last thing I need is my friends to take a round out of my eldest sister.  Mother would not approve.

"We-ell…."  I dragged out a little, looking to my friends for guidance.  They gave me pitying looks. 

"We were on this mission, and a couple things happened, and we caught an accidentally caught a ride on an airplane."

"What kind of things?"  My dad swiftly interrupted.

"Um, it turned out to be a trap, and a couple things happened."

"Danny."

"I got shot at and jumped off a six story building, ran from the shooters and accidentally ran into a robot that was trying to kill me, ran across an intersection full of busy cars, got blindsided, limped into an alleyway and was blown off my feet when Ray and John took out the robot."

"WHAT?"

"Danny, did you realize how much your life is like Diehard?"  I did not realize Arcane was a movie person.  If I get out of this conversation alive I will steal him away to look at the institute movie collection.

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"  My dad was looking pretty angry.  "Since when is sending my daughter to school an excuse for turning her into a commando?!"

My mom looked at me worriedly.  "Is that why you've been limping?  Did that…'robot' hurt you?"

"Um, actually, I think that was the car's fault."

"What else happened?  What other things have you been doing to get you hurt?"  My dad demanded.

"Err…You want me to start when we got of the plane?"

"YES!"

"Well," I took a deep breath. " We got off the plane.  We uh…took a bus!   We took a bus up to LA. To talk to Uncle Robbie, and he lent us the bus."  I jerked my head in the general direction of the driveway.   "And along the way we picked up Arcane and Hezibah, a perfectly harmless stray dog that some awful man had left out to die."  It was incredibly difficult to keep my face straight, as I was lying through my teeth.  Yes, Hezibah is totally harmless.  Never mind the fact that she can crush a man's skull in less than two seconds.

I know the other's were staring at me.  But that was not the point.  My parent's needed to believe me.  Dad shook his head. 

"Your friends aren't staying here tonight.  They'll be in a motel in town."

"Okay."  I was a little giddy.  Not often does one cheat death like this.

^*^^**^*^*^^**^*^^**^*^*^*^*^*^^LATER*^*^*^*^**^*^**^*^

Hezibah and Doggy padded into my room.  It was just like I left it.  It wasn't bigger or smaller, it was home.  Herman tok the opportunity to go flying out  from underneath my shirt and hang off the side of my bed.

"Danny?"

"Yeah mom?"

"Do you want to call the institute?"

"Sure."

I walked out to the kitchen to grab the phone.  I sat down in a chair and dialed the number for the institute.

Brinng.

Our road trip was about to end.

Briinnng

If I said I wasn't sorry, I'd be lying.

Briinnn-

It shut off.  No ringer.  I tried again.  All I got was dead silence. 

I put the phone back on the cradle.  Looks like the road trip wasn't over just yet.

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Alright!!!!  We have another chappy up.  Oh gosh, I need to get back to Two Cents, it's been three days since I updated it.

Kally is taking reviews again.  Herman would, but he almost got eaten by Hezibah earlier.  Need to teach that pup to watch what she eats.