Disclaimer:  X-men not mine.

Laureate: Sunny tells me you've been giving arthropod friendly hugs.  I'm trying the best I can to keep on top of things.

Akai Kah'ghe:  Next time just call to Doggy, he'll walk up to you.

Flamingo1:  Actually, no.  When I first started writing for her, I wanted that to happen.  But then I created Arcane(who is actually her crush even though she won't say anything) and decided Ray would be more like the best friend type.  Even more so now that they've broken about fifteen diverse state laws together.

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"OHIO! OHIO! OHIO!"

That chant was getting really annoying.  But I couldn't blame them.

We have been errant for about two weeks.  And we were two states from home! 

Spike left us after he bailed the bus out.  He said that now that he knew where I was he'd drop by and say hi to me.  Then he went back to Missouri so that we could do the last part of the trip by ourselves.

My knee, which had gone through the heck, was finally healing.  The big purple bruise that made me limp was…well it still made me limp, but the purple was turning into a rainbow now.  Green, purple, blue, black, orange, and red.  Like I said.  Rainbow.  My

back was doing about as well, and I now had a patch over my cheek where I got cut.  My ribs still hurt when I move around sometimes.

Arcane was not driving.  He was sitting next to me.  Doggy and Hezibah decided they wanted to socialize and sat with Wanda and Sam.  Ray was driving.  Again.  At least we're not driving a van full of drugs.

But it wasn't as if I liked Arcane, or Jerry-boy, he was just a friend.  I decided that calling him Jerry was better, we already have Jamie at the institute. 

"When ah get home ah'm gonna kiss Scott!"

"What about Remy?"  Wanda teased as she scratched Hezibah's neck.  See?  I said Hezibah would grow on them.  Rogue turned beet red.

"Ah could cahyah less about tha' Swampraht!"

"Them why do you have dreams about him?"

"Why do you have dreams abouht Toahd?"  She shot back.  Now it was Wanda's turn to turn red.

"I do not!"

"Do Too!"

"Since when?"

"Ah heard you cahll his nahme out while you were sleepin'."

"You did not!  Liar!"

"Sheilahs!  Calm yourselves down!  This ain't bloody Jerry Springer!"

Wanda and Rogue glared at each other over the seats.  It was probably good that there was a seat between them.

"Finally.  Now maybe we can—RAY!!!!!"

Ray, who had been distracted by the arguing and looking for a stray hex bolt, looked back to the road in time to see the sign in front of them.  Both of my hands went up to my neck to catch Herman and Kally as we hit the sign and went careening into a ditch.

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"So you gonna go out wid' de petite?"

"Da."

"Good match.  Remy actually glad for you."

"You miss the Rogue."

"Remy din'n say dat."

"It is on your face, comrade."

"Mebbe a little."

There was a loud crash outside and a high pitched scream.

"De spidey still alive?  You tink de boss want us to recruit 'im?"

"Perhaps."

There was several more crashes and loud screaming.  Kitty phased through the wall with a disgusted look on her face.

"Like, Pietro is such a sissy!  Oh, Gambit, are you like, feeling better?  You were out for almost a day!"

"Remy fell better, petite.  But de tin man need company.  Have fun."

Remy swiftly exited before they could say anything.  But while he exited, something ran in.  Something small and furry.  Kitty saw it and leaped into Piotr's arms with a shriek.

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"Great job Ray!" 

"Hey, did you know this bus is out of gas?"  Lance said as he tried to start up the bus.  It was hopeless.  We were all standing around the thing that had once been our ride.

Everyone got out okay.  We were just a little shaken.

"I guess we'll be hitch hiking."  John ran to the bus grabbed a couple of things, and ran back to the road.

"What is he doing?"  Arcane groaned.  John wrote something on a piece of cardboard and began waving it.

I walked around to the road so I could see what it said.

"We are not escaping inmates."  I looked at him.  "Great way to stop a car, Johnny boy."

"Well, I figured it was better than nothing."

"I've got something better."  Lance grabbed his sign and wrote something on the back.  Then he grabbed Ray and gave it to him and shoved him towards the road.

Ray looked at it.  "I wrecked the car?!  Gee Lance, how is that going to help?"

"They might feel sorry for us."

"Good to know you're thinking on your feet, mate."

"As long as we're doing this, I've got something even better."  Arcane grabbed another piece of cardboard from John (he had several pieces from who knows where) and wrote something on it.  He then walked to the road and held it up.  Wanda and Rogue went around to see it.

"Suppose you were ahn Idiot." Rogue read.

"And suppose you didn't stop for us," Wanda continued.

"But I repeat myself."  They said together.   Then they started laughing.  He winked at me.

"An adaptation of Mark Twain."

"So I noticed."  I grinned a little.  Wanda raised her eyebrows at me, but was swiftly nipped in the butt by a certain wolfhound. Serves her right for thinking things like that.

There was a loud screeching noise.  We all looked over to see a hearse stop by the side of the road.  A guy stuck his head out.

"You kids need a ride?  I got a coffin in there, it's a little cramped in the back."

We didn't say anything.  Then Ray cleared his throat.

"No thank you sir, we're not going THAT far."

The driver looked puzzled, then just pulled back onto the highway.

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It was night.  And it was dark.  John managed to find the flashlight and was trying to catch passing car's attention.  He had to stop after the fourth time somebody almost had an accident.  Ray and I were huddled against each other, trying to keep warm.  Rogue and Wanda had crawled into the bus, Hezibah and Doggy were somewhere in the forest with Sam, Lance and Arcane had taken over flagging down duty, Herman and Kally were in my shirt, hanging off my collar, and John sat on the other side of me.

"So what are you two gonna do when you get back to the institute?"  He asked sleepily.  He put his head on my shoulder.  He must have really been tired.

"I'm going to call everyone so they know I made it back okay."  I said, leaning my head back against the tire.

"I'm going to go to bed.  My own bed so I don't have to worry about being waked up by somebody snoring or something."  Ray yawned a little.  I began to wish that Wanda and Rogue hadn't locked the doors.  Maybe we shouldn't have teased them so bad about the whole dreams thing.

"Hey sheilah."

"Yeah?"

"Exactly how old are you?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

"Just wondering, luv.  All I know about you is that you drive crazy, you talk to animals, and are an all around good kid."

"I'll be sixteen in—" I jerked out my hand to look at the watch Spike lent to me.  I gave him my pocket knife for safekeeping.  The nice one with the coyotes.  I looked at the date. "—two hours.  Wow, I didn't know it was that soon.  Or that it was this late."

"Is that watch right?"  Ray asked.  His head was resting on my other shoulder.  I could tell he was getting ready to fall asleep.  Which under any other circumstances would be strange, but when we ditched Arkansas, we didn't stop until we hit the sign.  Well, to sleep anyway. 

It was a five state run.  Long trip.

"Yeah."

"Oh.  I didn't get you nothing."

"Anything."

"Whatever."

"I'll have to get you something later too, sheilah."

"No need.  You guys already got me several criminal convictions."

We laughed a little at that.  My eyelids began to grow heavy and I was about to nod off when I heard a loud siren.  We all bolted upright, which resulted in a couple cracked jaws and a headache (on my part, I rammed my head back into the tire.). 

A couple of cops walked amongst us after they got out of their squad car.

"Did you kids know that you're violating several laws?"

"Obviously not, sir."  Lance should have just kept his mouth shut.  On of the cops went back to call for back up.  The other one knocked on the bus doors and made Wanda and Rogue get out.

"What laws ahr we breakin'?"  Sam asked.  He'd returned from walking around with my puppies.

"You've run out of gas, destroyed federal property, and your dogs aren't wearing taillights."

The other squad cars arrived.  We decided not to put up any sort of fight, because that would probably be a stupid idea.  I made sure Doggy and Hezibah didn't fight, then changed my mind and told them to run.  I doubted someone wouldn't notice Hezibah was not a dog, and I didn't want her wandering around alone.

There were assorted cuss words as they made a break for it, and Rogue and I were shoved into a car.  Ray and Sam got another car, Wanda and Arcane got paired up, and John and Lance were put together.

I got arrested for my birthday.

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Hmmm….Looks like we still got a couple more chapters.

Alrighty, Sunny is still taking reviews.  Danny would take reviews but she, Herman, and Kally are on their way to the crib, so it's kind of impossible.