Dance the Night Away
"This gym looks lovely," Ororo commented on the decorations at the Pit. Indeed the entire gymnasium was made up to look like it was an island paradise. It even had a huge volcano on the side of the room.
"Well we thought the kids deserved it," Shipwreck said. "Lance is watching the babies so the adults are here with some of the Joes to chaperone. Hey you with the wings, I don't think we've met yet."
"I'm Angel, also known as Warren Worthington the Third," Warren introduced himself.
"Well I'm Hector Shipwreck Delgato the First," Shipwreck looked at him. "So you're the hunk all the girls are so gaga over."
"What?" Warren looked at him.
"I've heard the rumors," Shipwreck said. "You got every female around your finger. Just stay away from Stormy huh? I saw her first!"
"Oh god…" Ororo groaned.
Meanwhile several of the X-Men and Misfits were dancing already. Even Amanda had come. "Wow so this is the Pit," She remarked. "This is really nice!"
"Yeah," Kurt nodded. He wasn't wearing his image inducer. "It still feels weird dancing like this without my inducer on. I feel like we're the strangest couple here."
"Uh no you're not," Todd pointed. He and Althea were dancing by and stopped.
All four of them stared and saw Arcade happily dancing with Xi. "Okay when did that happen?" Kurt asked.
"Search me," Todd shrugged. "But at least this is an improvement. At least Arcade's not in love with a computer anymore."
"They're only dancing you nitwits," Wanda remarked as she walked up to them. "And it's not even a slow dance. They're not even touching each other."
That's when Xi playfully hugged Arcade. "Well we all know Xi's a little touchy feely sometimes," Todd said.
"Yeah I mean Xi doesn't even have any…desires," Althea gulped. "Does he?"
"Well he don't but Arcade sure does!" Todd remarked. "Still you don't think…?"
Then they both giggled and ran off behind the volcano. "Follow them!" Althea shouted and they all went over to spy.
Meanwhile Kitty and Peter were dancing happily. Pietro zipped over. "Having fun?"
"Buzz off Pietro!" Kitty hissed.
"Hey I'm just being a gracious host," Pietro put on a wounded face.
"That would be a first," Peter grumbled.
"Well I'll just tell Lance and Spyder that the two of you are having a good time," Pietro grinned. "Of course Spyder is in bed by now."
"PIETRO GET LOST!" Kitty shouted. Pietro ran away laughing. "I swear Peter I wasn't even thinking about Lance!"
"At least until Mr. Buttinski cut in," Peter grumbled making a mental note to kill Pietro at a much later date.
"Forget it! I am not thinking of him! I'm with you! Let's go get some punch!" She dragged him away.
"Oh she is so jealous now! It's eating her up! She can't take it!" Pietro cackled with sadistic glee. "I love it!"
"You were right Pietro this is fun," Fred grinned. "Good thing we're all keeping tight lipped about Spyder. But what happens when Kitty finds out?"
"Hopefully a huge explosion but not before she has a good long burn," Pietro laughed.
Meanwhile a group of New Mutants were around the punch with Jamie. "Come on Multiple you have to do it!" Bobby said. "It's the only way we can get some information on the new Misfit!"
"Why me?" Jamie asked.
"Because the triplets like you," Bobby said. "And you can charm the information out of them."
"I dunno guys…" Jamie gulped.
"Would you dance with us?" Daria batted her eyes as the three of them made their way to Jamie.
"Sure he would," Sam nudged Jamie so that he made two more copies of himself. He shoved them towards the triplets. "Have fun!"
"You guys owe me big time!" Jamie hissed as he was dragged away.
Scott and Jean were dancing together. "It's kind of nice you know?" Scott told her. "Just us. Not worrying what other people think. Or if any disasters are going to happen."
"It's just a perfect evening," Jean wrapped her arms around him.
"ALL RIGHT YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF!" They heard Low Light yelling. Instinctively they pulled away from each other but found that he wasn't talking to them. "WOLVERINE! JINX! YOU TWO KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!"
"Sorry…" Jinx blushed.
"Making out like a bunch of teenagers! And you two aren't that much better!" Low Light yelled at Flint and Lady Jaye.
"We're married, deal with it," Lady Jaye told him.
"All right you wanna fight pal? You got one!" Warren shouted as he and Shipwreck went at it.
"You were saying?" Jean sighed.
"SOMEBODY SAVE ME!" Jamie screamed as Trinity was chasing him.
Shipwreck and Warren were throwing punches around. "WILL YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF?" Ororo screamed.
"Fire! Fire!" Bazooka ran around madly.
"Fire?" Scott asked. That was when the volcano exploded. "Oh, that fire."
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Twenty minutes later…
"Well Arcade and Xi were fooling around all right!" Kurt groaned as he held his head. "They were fooling around with the volcano controls!"
"I told you that it wasn't what you thought it was!" Wanda snapped. "But did anybody listen to me? Nooooooooo!"
"How's Peter?" Kurt asked as Kitty walked up to him.
"He's still got a bump on his head but its not a concussion," Kitty told him. "Nobody's seriously injured thank goodness. Actually it looks like the adults got most of the injuries."
"You can blame my father for that," Althea sighed. "Once again he starts another brawl. I am so looking forward to our prom pictures."
"Wonderful," Rogue muttered. "Some prom. Half of the people are in the infirmary, the gym burned down, and the chaperones got into a fistfight. It was a total disaster."
"Yeah that sounds like our dances all right," Bobby grumbled.
"Yeah lucky Lance missed all this," Pietro grinned. "He got to take care of Spyder in bed."
"That's it!" Kitty snapped. "We're going over there to find out exactly who this Spyder is!"
"Oh I have got to see this," Pietro snickered.
"I'll pass," Rogue muttered as the group consisting of Kitty, Pietro, Wanda, Althea, Todd, Kurt, and Amanda went over to the Misfit house. "I think I'll check up on Remy." She made like she was going to the infirmary, but then she stopped. Without anyone noticing she went another direction towards the Joe offices. No one knew she was missing.
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Back at the house Lance and Spyder were playing a video game. The past several weeks Spyder had been transformed from a scrawny urchin to an almost perfectly healthy child. Her long gray hair had been put in a long braid. Although she had recovered from her malnutrition she still had periods of exhaustion. Partially this was because of her powers. When she shot out her electric webbing it took a lot out of her body.
Still she had adapted to life at the Misfits quite well. It had been decided that Spirit would be her legal guardian because he would be a more calming influence on the girl as well as installing her with his skills in martial arts. But all the adults grew to love the little tomboy. She and the triplets had become fast friends and had even helped them out with their little experiments, much to the chagrin of the adults. Her love of martial arts and wrestling had endeared her to the boys and her spunky attitude impressed the girls. And Xi thought of her as a great playmate as well.
But her obvious favorite was Lance. Lance hated to admit it, but the little girl grew on him and he saw her as an annoying little sister that wasn't always so annoying. "Ugh you killed me again!" Lance groaned.
"Gotcha!" Spyder whooped.
"Uh you got me kid," Lance threw down the game controls.
"Man this is more fun than any ol' dance!" Spyder cried. Then she caught the look on Lance's face. "Sorry."
"No biggie," Lance sighed.
"Are you sure you're not mad?" Spyder asked him.
"Nah," Lance waved. "We can have our own fun here anyway. You wanna dance?"
"Dance! Dance!" The babies squealed from their playpen.
"Yeah I know you guys wanna dance!" Lance laughed. The doorbell rang. "Now who could that be?"
He opened the door. "Tabby? What are you doing here?"
"Xavier sent me over here," Tabitha sighed. "I'm still grounded. Wouldn't let me go to the party but decided that an evening babysitting the babies would be punishment enough."
"Bummer," Lance shrugged. "Well you can join our little party."
"Are you Kitty?" Spyder asked.
"Nah this is Tabitha," Lance told her. "Tabby this is Spyder."
"That's Spyder?" Tabitha looked at her. "Oh I get it now. Making Kitty jealous huh?"
"Well…" Lance shrugged.
"Lance I need to lie down for a minute," Spyder told him. "I don't need to go to bed, just let me sit on the couch."
"Okay," Lance nodded as she went back to the couch. "You want me to get you some food?"
"Could I have some of my juice?" Spyder asked.
"Sure," Lance nodded. "Come on Tabby."
"Is she sick?" Tabitha asked when they went into the kitchen.
"Kinda," Lance shrugged. "When we found her she was just skin and bones. She's recovering from malnutrition. She's a lot better now but she still gets tired easily."
"What happened?"
"Her father abandoned her the day the Sentinels first showed up," Lance told her.
"Rough," Tabitha sighed. "How old is she?"
"Twelve," Lance said. "Cops were hunting her like an animal on a phony murder charge. We found her in time."
"Geeze," Tabitha breathed. "Poor kid."
"She's a tough little thing," Lance waved. "Bit of a tomboy sometimes but you know…"
"What's with the juice?" Tabitha asked.
"Lifeline and Spirit created a special blend of juices and vitamins that help Spyder grow and give her the nutrients she needs," Lance explained. "Her metabolism's as fast as Quicksilver's but different. She gets tired easily, especially when she uses her powers."
"What does she do?"
"Well she can stick to walls like Spider Man and she shoots out this weird electrical webbing," Lance explained. He brought the juice to Spyder. "Here ya go squirt."
"Thanks," Spyder slurped it down. "So are you the annoying one that used to live in the Brotherhood house and blow people up?"
"Annoying one?" Tabitha glared at Lance.
"Pietro's words, not mine," Lance told her.
"Uh huh…" In the background a large rumble could be heard. "Did you hear an explosion?" Tabitha asked.
"This is the Pit," Lance told her. "Odds are pretty good that you did."
"You wanna play a game with us?" Spyder asked Tabitha.
"Oh I think Lance is already playing an interesting game," Tabitha snickered.
"Quit it Tabby," Lance snapped.
"Oh all right, but what about those two?" Tabitha asked as she pointed to the babies. "Don't they need a diaper change or anything?"
"Nah I already took care of it," Lance waved. "Besides they look pretty happy." The babies were bonking several stuffed animals in their playpen gleefully. Barney was using his whiffle bat. "Don't ask me why they're doing that. I haven't got a clue."
"They just like to bonk things I guess," Spyder shrugged
Soon Spyder and Tabitha were playing the game gleefully. "I win again!" Spyder chirped.
"Geeze and I thought I knew this game backwards and forwards!" Tabitha groaned. "What are you some kind of hustler kid?"
"I'm the champion!" Spyder proclaimed as she got up and started to climb the wall.
"Spyder get down from there," Lance picked her up off the wall. "Don't want you tiring out again okay?"
"Okay. Hey there are people walking up to the house," Spyder observed as she looked out the window.
"Oh no…" Lance gulped when he saw who it was. "I'm in trouble."
Kitty meets Spyder and the sparks fly…Literally.
