Disclaimer: X-men not mine.
HoneyBug17: Wait no longer.
Akai Kah'ghe: They're gonna try.
Laureate: cyber-pocky?
Flamingo1: She's ready! Oh, and thank you for telling me. That saying has been in my head for a while.
Azzandra: Thank-you! Giddyness is fun, no?
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"Where were you?! What were you doing? Were you captured? Were you kidnapped? Did Lance do this to you?!"
"Hey!"
I stayed well behind Sam and Wanda as Scott gave our little squad the third degree. We had barely said a word until we got back to the institute. But now we were in the main room, getting chewed out by our team leader.
Never mind that all of us were practically having to lean on each other for support. John was leaning against me, looking really pale. Arcane was right behind me. I was leaning up against his shoulder. Because I was tired. That's the only reason.
Mystique, Magneto, Mr. Logan and Ms. Ororo had gone with Mr. McCoy for some reason. Something about a patient.
"I KNOW you had something to do with this Alvers!"
"You're just looking for someone to blame, one eye!"
"You're a bad egg, Alvers! Now you've probably given Danny ideas!"
"Keep me out of this."
"Yeah, she comes up with plenty ideas of her own," Ray snickered. He was standing next to Tabby, who was sitting in a chair.
"Ray? Do you want me to sic a lizard up your pants?"
"I don't think there will be a need of that, Danielle." Uh-oh.
"Professor!" Scott exclaimed. "You're awake!"
"He was sleeping?" Wanda mused.
"For at least a couple weeks. That was why we didn't know where you were." Jean explained.
"Yes, but those two weeks, I was not totally incapacitated. In fact, I was watching you—or more importantly, our lost friends." He calmy said. All of the other grown-ups were standing around him.
"Ummm…..When you say you were watchin' us…"
"I know all about the escapades of your group, Rogue. And I—"
"YOU!" Mr. Logan's claws popped out suddenly. Arcane stiffened up behind me.
"Can we talk about this?"
Wolverine ignored him and prepared to leap on him and cut him into tiny pieces. I stepped in front of Arcane.
"Get out of the way, Doolittle. You don't understand. He kills people." That got a collected gasp from a lot of people. I probably would have if I weren't scared that any movement from my part would result in dismemberment.
"I can't. He helped me, he's my friend."
"Doolittle—"
"No."
"It's alright, Wolverine. I've watched him, and I believe you know that he is a good person, though his ways are unorthodox. Though, I must ask you to leave soon, Arcane. Right or wrong, you are not allowed to stay with these impressionable minds."
"Understood, Professor." Arcane loosened his body up.
"Now," the Professor looked at our group. "Why don't you all get some sleep? Arcane, you may stay here tonight. Danny, I'd like you, John, and Tabitha to go to the med lab. Lance, Wanda, Ray, Sam, Rogue, you can go to the kitchen. Ororo will fix you up there.
"Yessir."
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The bed was so nice and soft. And it had been so long since I had been in an institute bed. John was sitting in the next bed, snoring away. He had a broken arm. But other than that, he was fine. Tabby was on the other side of me. She had a concussion. Plus the gash had needed some antibiotics. But she was okay too. I was good too. After my leg had been re bandaged and the wound on my back was disinfected, and my cheek cut was cleaned out, and the giant bruise on my eye got bandaged. My ribs could not be bandaged, so for now I had Doctor's orders to take it easy.
Something bumped into a table nearby. I lifted my head of the pillow a little bit. Something very small, about three inches log and very fuzzy, was skittering across the floor. I let my hand drop toward the floor. It immediately ran over and crawled into my palm and up my arm to perch on my shoulder.
(I thought you were long gone.)
The sunspider put a leg on my face. Sort of like an 'I'm still here' gesture.
(Are you being good?)
It waved it's legs around. A sort of a 'so-so' gesture.
(You want to sleep on my pillow tonight. I'll let you out in the morning.)
It skittered over to my pillow and curled itself into my hair, making a little nest for herself. Yeah. Somehow I knew it was a she.
(Goodnight Sunny.) I yawned and fell to sleep.
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"Well. Would you like to tell us your story now?"
The morning after. After I got a broom in my face because there was a spider trying to eat my brains, as Kitty so eloquently put it. After I ran away from her, trying to keep a good distance between myself and a happy broom-swinging lunatic. After I bolted outside and ducked into the woods before Kitty could catch me, and deposited my little spider friend into the bushes. I whispered goodbye, she waved her legs at me, and ran off when I was tackled by Kitty.
And after such a wonderful morning, now our group, with the infamous Arcane, were standing in the main room, with a wondiferous audience.
"Umm…Well, we fought the robot, and we retreated, we found Danny." Ray started. We all nodded, even Tabby, even though she was not with us at the time.
"And you retreated into the belly of a plane to get away?"
"Uhh…We were hiding?"
"That was not a good place to hide." Scott informed us. Lance rolled his eyes.
"Danny, please start telling the story. I sense it will take forever to get it out of the others."
"Yes Professor." I looked around at the others. They nodded at me. I took a deep breath.
"Well, we got stuck on the plane because it took off. We were on the flight and we stole some clothes to fit in. When we got out—"
"Courtesy of the Cannonball." Lance cut in quickly.
"We ran into town, where we decided where to go next. We went to a motel."
"Expenses paid by the Scarlet Witch." Ray offered.
"Then we checked into the hotel and got ourselves cleaned up. Then we figured out where to go, and we got some transportation, only to find out later down the road that it was a drug van."
"And that was where Danny lost her priveliges to drive." Wanda informed him.
"So we went to LA and talked to my uncle, who gave us a bus, and we got lost somewhere in Pacific Grove—"
"Where John got arrested fer harrasin' butterflies." Rogue supplied.
"Then we went to Oregon-"
"Where we picked up a wild animal." Sam said, looking at Hezibah.
"And afterwards we drove to Wyoming and went to the mall. And then we went to Kansas to visit my family, and we went to Arkansas-"
"Where we are never allowed to go again." Lance grinned.
"Got bailed out by Spike, my cousin, went to Ohio, got arrested for running out of gas, got out, and went home. Or almost. We used the bus to run over a couple robots."
"I sense you were being a little general. You left out the separate times you got attacked by robots, the vans you stole and the various other laws you all broke."
"We did what we had to to survive!" John declared. And for some bizarre reason, the Professor nodded.
"I understand fully. However, as I cannot control you or the brotherhood, I have no punishment to give you. However, the rest of you," He fixed his gaze on us, "Are grounded."
To everyone's surprise, we actually looked happy. Hey, I wanted to stay home. No way was I going to pass up a nice warm bed. We all started to evacuate the room.
"Danny."
"Yes Professor?"
"Happy belated Birthday."
"Thank-you Professor." I hurried out of the room before anyone could catch me.
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"Danny!"
I opened the door. Arcane was standing outside my door.
The brotherhood had left, telling me not to be a stranger. I told them once I got off my grounding I'd visit. The Acolytes left as well. John gave me a big hug and told me he considered me a sister. I told him he was my honorary brother. And now Arcane was leaving.
"I'm leaving."
"Oh."
"How's the hyena?"
"She's chewing on my bedpost. Ms. Ororo said she could stay as long as I kept an eye on her."
"Oh."
"So….You coming back to visit us? Or are you going to play the masked man?"
"Masked man?"
"Gone without a trace."
"I'll….visit sometime."
"Cool."
"Yeah. Cool. I'll be seeing you."
"Is the Professor going to let you visit?"
"What makes you think he can stop me?"
"Oh. Goodbye."
He turned to leave. I watched him as he walked away.
"Hey Jerry."
He turned to look at me.
"I'll miss you. Don't be a stranger."
He laughed and kept walking. I closed my door and walked over to my window, and watched him as he left the institute. At the gates he turned and looked up at my window and waved. I waved back. He disappeared into the city.
I turned back to look at my room. It was so empty now. Doggy and Hezibah were sitting on my bed, watching me.
"It's good to be home, isn't it guys?"
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That's it! This story is fini!
Hurrah to Sunny, she is a full-fledged muse, leaving the nest! Good for you, Flamingo1!
Danny is taking reviews today. I think she's pining over a certain gunslinger that she has absolutely no crush on.
