Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, "Did you bring joy?" The second was, "Did you find joy?"
--Leo Buscaglia

Asteria: Hmm…may have to wait a couple chapters.

Flamingo1: Sorry, no Chrissy torture here. But I introduced two new characters!

Laureate: Yeah…Danny is getting freaked out. She's going through depression.   And cupcake thanks you for Gnocchi, he loved it.

Rogue77: It may take a while for Arcy to meet Dahk, but he has a pretty big part in the next chapter.

Torque: Doggy takes your salute. Latin is fun!

HoneyBug17: Shooting Juju won't work. Apparently he's too lucky.

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"You guys wouldn't happen to know a Johnny Ricard, would ya?"  I asked as I peered into the junkyard.  Two massive Rottweilers were peering back at me.

I dunno.

I do. Comes by here every day. Slicked back hair, thinks he's macho.

Hey, I know him! What a little wuss. He couldn't catch anybody if they fell on him.

That's the guy. Anyway, he lives a couple blocks from here, place they call Starlight Avenue.

But you can't see the stars. How's that for romantic, eh tootsie?

"Lots. I take it you guys are brothers?"

Yeah.

You need backup?

Yeah, he a lot bigger than you, sweets.  Though that ain't sayin' much.

"What about your owner?"

Him? He's an idiot.

Yeah, he throws our food over the fence 'cause he thinks we're gonna rip his leg off.

Though his fears may not be groundless.

"Aw, sure. Why not? The more, the merrier."

I wandered over to the gate. It was padlocked, so I ignored it.  There was wire holding the fence to some poles, so I began untwisting it and got my hands cut a couple of times before I opened it wide enough for it to let the big dogs out.  They stood in front of me. They had to be as big as Doggy, and Doggy is practically the size of a small horse.

"Lead the way, fellas."

The two big dogs loped off down the street, myself hurrying behind.

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The bug was dead. He turned it over in his hands. It looked like it just keeled over, except for the fact that it was just a husk. There were a lot of ones like that, and ones that were only half there and others that looked as if they had been rotting for a while until they decided to get up and run off.

Arcane thoughtfully walked about the school.  He had already seen where something had ripped up part of the concrete in the back of the school. Danny couldn't do something like that…

Arcane spied something and picked a scrap of material off the ground.  It was part of a white linen shirt. The only place he knew had those were hospitals.

And he had heard a lot of strange rumors about Bayville hospital.

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"It had horns, no, curly and straight."

"Curly and straight? How is that possible?"

"No, it was straight but it was all curly…spirals! That's it."

Roberto sketched out piece by piece what Evan was describing.

One arm was a gorilla, another was a lizard or something.  And it had the big armored plate across its chest."

 "Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" Donnie asked concernedly.

"Naw man. It was real.  Callisto could vouch for me. It threw her across the sewers!"

"Hm. I'd better go tell Chrissy and Mom and Dad what's going on." Donnie left before anyone could stop him.

"Great. Just what we need, Danny's family is gonna go ballistic." Logan growled angrily.  Ororo shook her head with a sigh.

"Sometimes I wonder if Danny is truly related to them. She's such a sweet girl."

"Auntie O, she attacked the Morlocks. She ain't all that sweet."

Scott stuck his head into the room.  "Logan, the team for New York is ready."

Logan nodded and followed him out.

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The scent led to a very noisy upper floor, with trash in the hallway.  We stopped in front of a door, with the sound of a stereo playing loudly behind it.  I banged on the door. There was no answer.

I kicked the door as hard as I could.  Someone inside started cursing and unlocking the door.

As soon as the door opened the Rottweiler brothers put their shoulders into it, slamming the door open and pinning the occupant behind the door.  I walked in. They let the door close and sat in front of it, snarling at the guy.

He had slicked back brown hair, and was wearing a gray t-shirt and boxers. He had his body squeezed as flat against the wall as he could. His attention was totally on the two brothers.

"This place is a dump," I announced as I looked around.  He looked over at me and his eyes widened.

"You're supposed to be dead!"

"Am I now?" I smiled at him. "It's hard to kill a mutie, ain't it?"

"Who are you? Why you in my apartment?"

"Do you truly take us for idiots? We know who you are, and what you did."

"I ain't telling you nothing."

"Funny. I was counting on that."  I walked over to the window and pulled the blinds down. "Now we're gonna have some fun, see, cause you know I'm crazy.  Big time.  You thought when you were injecting me I wasn't ever gonna know, but that's different now.  I'm not her. See, you tried to kill Danny and that was a bad idea."  I calmly plucked the gun up from the table next to the window and tossed it in the trashcan next to the door.

"How'd you figure out where I lived? They said you wouldn't know!"

"They were wrong. See, I have this little quirk.  It's called animal empathy and I don't expect you to know what that is, because you're an idiot.  But it means I can talk with animals.  And they talk back.  And boy, do pigeons talk.  See, animals take care of Danny. And me. They were watching. They saw you. They remembered at the reception desk, when you were too stupid to give an alias when you delivered flowers.  And they told me.  But I know people like you, see.  You're just some loser they put up too it."

I turned and grinned at him. He was looking pretty freaked. I on the other hand was enjoying watching him squirm.

"So I have to ask, Johnny Ricard, who put you up to this? I may go easy on you."

"I-I ain't tellin' you nothin'."

"You know what happens to people when they get attacked by dogs? See, a lot of people think dogs are these cute, man's-best-friend and everybody's pal animals.  But that isn't true.  Dogs are pack animals.  Smart, like wolves.  See those teeth? Those teeth can rip out a person's throat in less than a second.  And that's not counting the muscle behind them. Other people think that the only thing dangerous about dogs is the teeth. Every get thrown to the ground by a dog? They're heavy, like a load of bricks is sitting right on your chest."

He was looking really frightened right now.

"And guess what? You have two of them growling at you."

He looks like he's gonna mess in his pants.

Tootse got some freakiness to her.

You're telling me. She could chain me up anytime.

I smiled at that. It made Johnny very scared.

"I'll tell you anything you want. Please don't hurt me…"

"Who put you up to it?"  The brothers backed me up with loud growls.

"The FoH. The Friends of Humanity. They said it would kill scu-I mean, mutants."

"And where are they now?" I whispered with death in my voice.  He would have fallen to his knees if it didn't bring him closer to the brothers.

"Wyoming.  They're in Wyoming. After that I don't know. I swear!"

You gonna believe him?

He's telling the truth.

"I believe you." I said sweetly. He looked like he was going to faint with relief.

"But you hurt me." I said. He looked up at me in terror. "And I must return the favor."

The Dogs growled again. He looked as if he was going to throw himself around my waist and sob his wrongdoings.

\No killing. / Danny whispered quietly. I nodded.

"Don't worry, we're not going to kill you. We don't want the blood of scum on our hands.  But you did hurt us.  And it's a leg for a leg." I nodded to the brothers as I walked out. I heard a scream when I hit the staircase and the brothers padded out of the apartment and trotted up to me.

He ain't walking away from that one boss.

Heh. Especially since we broke both of his legs.

"Good job. I'm heading to Wyoming now. You two coming?" They answered by standing on either side of me as we walked out of the building.  I walked back to the place where Cupcake was, pondering things. Danny wasn't talking. I think that the whole leg thing got her a little upset. 

I stopped by a shop to pick up a cherry pie and walked the rest of the way back to the hide out.

"Well, well, well. This is certainly a surprise." I said startled. Sitting in front of the door were two very familiar canines. "Doggy, Hezibah, what are you two wandering around in here for?"

Doggy and Hezibah were looking for you. Hezibah informed me.  The brothers, seeing that I recognized them, sauntered over to introduce themselves.

Hey baby what's a girl like you doin' in a city like this?

What's up with you buddy? You don't talk?

Doggy does not speak. I am here looking for Danny, but she has changed.

"I'm Dahk. Danny is…on hiatus right now. We're going to Wyoming.  We're going to get the group that got the guys to give us the injection."

Hezibah knew you were there when Hezibah met Danny. I will follow.

Doggy wagged his tail. I opened up the door and let everybody in.

Holy guacomole! What in all of the big apple is THAT?!

"Hey! Don't be mean to my baby." I said to the brothers as I put the pie where Cupcake could eat it and set hamburgers on the floor on a plate so the canines could get at them.  I nodded to the brothers.

"What do I call you two?"

Hunk of burnin loves.

"Very funny."

We don't got names, boss.

"Hmmm…lessee….How about Brutus and Cassius?"

Who are they?

"They were really famous Roman warriors.  They killed Caesar because they feared he would become a dictator."

Cupcake lay down next to the brothers.  They regarded him for a sec and then settled down.

I call Cassius.

I was about to call Brutus, so it's all good.

Cassius, who had brown spots on his ears, sat next to his brother who had no spots.  If it weren't for the spots I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.  Hezibah finished off the burgers and sat down on the other side of Cupcake. I lay down on the couch, thinking about what to do next. Doggy watched me.

"We gotta get to Wyoming. Get ready boys and girl." I got up and grabbed my bag full of money. Doggy stood up and followed me as I walked into the kitchen and packed a couple of the hamburgers.  "We're goin' underground. If memory serves me correctly there's a train station outside Bayville.  We'll hitch a ride to Wyoming and route out the guys that tried to kill Danny."  Doggy regarded me silently. I could tell he was looking for something. I wasn't sure what he'd find.  But he would follow.  For Danny if not for me.

\Tell him I'm glad to see him. /

"Danny said she's glad to see you and she loves you Doggy."

"…Woof." Was his reply.  He trotted back into the living room and I followed, beckoning them.  They troupe followed me out and we dropped down the hole Cupcake made, which no one had noticed. Apparently the gang had gotten the place cleaned out. 

We ran down the sewers back to Bayville.

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Looks like Danny has her own guerilla force.

Tune in next time for death and a train.

Juju is taking reviews again!