Fry's journey back to his own body was much slower and more painful than the last time. But that peacefulness he had briefly experienced seemed an eternity ago. It was difficult to remember a time when his whole being, inside and out, didn't ache and throb painfully.

He became aware of the way his cheek was mashed against the cool metal of the ship's floor. The rest of his body was sprawled out in an uncomfortable position. One hand was resting on Leela's shoulder. Her face was turned away from him. He could taste the metallic glint of blood in his mouth. It was agony to move even his tongue around, but a careful probing revealed that all he had done was bitten the inside of his cheek. All teeth were firmly set in their rightful places. He couldn't hear anything. No, there was the faint creak of the ship settling, of metal shifting slightly. But he couldn't hear or feel the usual hum of the engines. That meant they weren't flying any longer.

As much as it tortured him, as tempted as he was just to sink back into oblivion, he began moving parts of his body, checking to see that nothing was seriously injured. He began with the hand that rested on Leela. Each movement brought a new blossom of pain, but he began to realize it was just bruises. Nothing felt broken.

Eventually he was able to lift himself into a sitting position. Leela still hadn't so much as twitched, and that worried him. He shifted to a position where he could see her face, and reached out to gently shake her arm. It took what seemed like an eternity full of anxiety, but finally her expression contorted into a grimace and she groaned. He reached up to push her bangs away from where they stuck to her face, and her eye opened halfway. He still felt too weak to speak, so he simply smiled at her. He watched for awhile as she, too, slowly reclaimed the confines of her body and checked it for damage. He then worked on lifting himself unsteadily to his feet. He needed to find out what fate had befallen his robot friend.

Leela watched from the floor as Fry staggered away. As often as it seemed they teetered on the brink of death, they always managed somehow to survive. She just wondered what crazy situation Fry had landed them in this time. Then she set that thought aside to wonder whether her twisted and unresponsive legs were simply asleep or more seriously injured.

-----

When, a while later, Fry returned with Bender in tow, she was pacing around the small room, looking outside. All she had seen so far was a thick forest of green trees. It seemed the ship had knocked over a few, creating a small clearing for itself. She turned away from the sight to greet her friends.

"I found him still in the kitchen; he needed to be restarted," Fry wisely pitched his voice low. She imagined he shared the same raging headache that pounded against the inside of her forehead. "Here, I brought you water. I couldn't find the first-aid kit."

She really would have preferred painkiller, but she accepted the water gratefully.

"So where are we?" She and Fry both winced at Bender's voice. Didn't the damned thing have a quiet chip she could permanently activate?

"I have no idea," she admitted, as Fry moved past her to look out the window. She was considering going to find that first-aid kit, when she was distracted by Fry's loud gasp. She turned to look out the window herself and started at the sight.

A large creature had emerged from the trees. He was heavily muscled and coated in a thick blue-colored fur. She was reminded of some long-extinct Earth animal. What was it? Ah, yes, the gorilla. It looked much like a gorilla, only it looked up at them with an all-too-human gaze. And wasn't it wearing—

Fry screamed "There's more!" softly and threw himself into her arms, Scooby Doo style. She caught him with a gasp and he buried his face against her shoulder. She gritted her teeth against the sudden weight she was forced to endure, but continued staring out the window. A smaller, slighter blue creature had appeared at the first's side. This one lashed a long spaded tail behind it and sported an odd black-and-red suit. More shapes were becoming visible through the trees, moving towards the ship.

To her left, Bender reached into his chest compartment and pulled out a small lampshade. He placed it on his head and announced, "They'll never find me now. Heh heh heh."

Leela abruptly dropped Fry on the floor, partly because the strength in her arms was beginning to give out and partly because she was just sick of humoring his childishness.

By now the group at the edge of the forest had ballooned. All the others were plainly human, but all looked ready to face trouble, faces set with a determination that they could beat it too. The only difference was the expression of an older man, confined to an outdated wheelchair. Some of the others surrounded him in an obviously protective ring. He must have been the leader of the group, which she noted. He would be the man to approach, she decided. And now would be as good a time as any. Well, a time when she was free of the aching in her body and the pounding in her head would be better. She hoped she would still be capable of fighting if it came down to a need for it.

She looked down at Fry, who was huddled under the control panel.

"Are they still out there?" he asked.

"Yes. And I'm going to go out to speak to them," she stated.

"You can't be serious!"

"I am. What else do you suggest we do? Do you think we could hide forever in this ship?"

"Yes?"

"No. Now I suggest you stay here until I'm finished. There's no need for you to go messing things up any worse than they already are by saying something stupid."

With that, she strode resolutely to the door leading outside and pushed a button that lowered the stairway that would lead her down to the ground, into the midst of the strange group. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then stepped out into the sunlit afternoon.

The group shifted away from peering up into the window of the ship to watch her. They all tensed, leaning deeper into wary fighting stances. Leela tried to put on her best show of confidence. She wanted to look unthreatening, but not weak or afraid. She hoped neither her anxiety nor her pain showed through, as her foot finally touched the ground. She decided it would be best not to step much further forward. She didn't want to look too aggressive, plus she thought it would be better to have a clear path to flee back up into the ship if necessary, instead of having to fight her way to it through a ring of foes.

She stopped a few feet from the base of the stairway, turned towards the crowd, and raised her voice to state, "My name is Leela, and I am captain of the Planet Express ship. We mean you no harm; in fact, we'll be on our way just as soon as we can fix our ship and figure out where we are." She looked squarely into the eyes of the old man in the wheelchair. His face remained neutral as he stared, for a moment, back at her. She winced inwardly as her headache seemed to flare for a moment.

Finally, he spoke. "Miss Leela, I understand your predicament and I recognize your pure intentions. My name is Charles Xavier, and I extend to you, and any companions you may have, my hospitality, to stay at my institute as guests. I would like to learn more about you and why you are here, and I offer you any help we may be able to give in fixing your ship and getting you home."

The others look surprised at his words, and some looked worried or angered, especially a muscular masked man to this Xavier's left, who wore a ridiculous black and orange costume and seemed to have blades clenched in his fist, extending out past his knuckles. Even if Xavier seemed friendly, the fierce look of the man told her that she ought to tread carefully in this unfamiliar territory. But she couldn't think of many other options than to take up the offer and see what happened.

"I accept your offer, and thank you. Now if you'll allow me a moment to find the rest of my crew." Xavier nodded once in assent.

Back on the ship, Fry was still curled up on the floor. Bender was still an impromptu lamp.

"I know you two heard all that was said. So are you ready to go?"

Fry stood up and asked, "But what if you're leading us into death?"

"Oh, it's not like you haven't already tried doing that to us today already," Leela snapped.

"Oh. Yeah." He looked down sheepishly.

"What about you, Bender? Are you coming, or are you too scared?"

Bender plucked off the lampshade and threw it to the floor. "Bender ain't afraid of nothin' or nobody."

"All right then."

After she had turned around, Bender paused for only a moment before he bent down to pick up the shade and stuff it back into his chest compartment, then hurried after his friends.

-----

The walk through the forest felt long and strained. The foreign group had formed a protective ring around the Planet Express crew to escort them behind Charles Xavier to this Institute he mentioned. Curiosity about the crew was plain in the eyes of the younger members of the group, who seemed to be teenagers. The smaller blue fuzzy thing seemed most inquisitive, Leela noticed. But they all seemed most amazed by Bender. Perhaps they had never seen such a robot before. It seemed that way, judging by how primitive this planet seemed. She wondered just where they had landed. It was a planet she couldn't remember seeing before. The two blue creatures were totally unfamiliar to her, and she thought she knew where most humans had colonized.

Not many words had been said since that brief talk when she had first stepped off of the ship. But she saw the wiry blue creature scoot closer to Fry, who was walking ahead of her.

"Pardon me, sir, but may I ask what your name is, and that of your robot friend? My name is Kurt." the creature said. Leela noticed he had a strong accent that she vaguely recognized. It was something from Earth. Maybe Old Europe. Some people still learned their traditional languages young and had such an accent. But she couldn't be sure....

Fry looked down at him. "Of course. My name's Fry, and that's Bender. It's nice to meet you Kurt. I notice you sound like you're from Germany. Is that where we are now?"

Ah. That was what she had been trying to think of.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Yes, I am from Germany. But right now, we are in the state of New York."

Leela's eye widened in surprise. That couldn't be possible. There wasn't a single area of New York state left forested. The entire state had, by her time, been covered in the sprawling reaches of New New York City. Something really wasn't right here, and she felt the anxiety in the pit of her stomach returning with a vengeance. She hoped this Institute wasn't too much further away, since it was high time she had a talk with Xavier. She hoped she wasn't walking into some trap.

"Oh cool," Fry was saying. "I live there!"

"But you fly in that spaceship," Kurt said.

"We will find answers to many questions about our visitors, in time," Xavier's voice came floating back to them. "But for now, we will let our guests settle down from what must have been an interesting journey, before we pressure them for answers."

Kurt ducked his head and distanced himself a bit from Fry.

Shortly, the trees thinned to reveal a large, old-fashioned mansion. Leela became increasingly nervous as they approached, and then entered, the Institute. Once inside, Xavier turned to the ship's crew.

"Welcome to the Xavier Institute. I hope you find your short stay here pleasant. Later we will talk about what brings you here, and after that I hope to help you in repairing your strange ship. First however, we will make arrangements to accommodate you here. Please let me know if you need or desire anything. Jean, Scott, please show our guests to some rooms."

A tall red-headed woman stepped forward and gestured to Leela to follow her. Leela cast a glance back at Fry and Bender, who were being approached by an even taller man who wore a strange red band over his eyes. Then she turned and cautiously followed Jean up the magnificent flight of stairs.