09 Oh Rats!

by Cougarcreed

Griffin saves a new friend, but has to keep her a secret.

09 oh Rats

"Oh… RATS!"

By DelCreed and Griffin

Started: August 2, 2004

Disclaimer:

This is a dimension #2 Griffin story, which means it follows the story line of "The Tiger's Cubs", "Give me a Happy Ending" and my 'What if…' "The Price of Acceptance" Etc...

· Griffin in any dimension is mine, all mine. So if you want to use him please ask, submit a blood sample and write a 1,000,000 word explanation on what you want to do with him and then I might let you borrow him, the same thing goes for Metallica and the twins Loric and Navar.

As ever Marvel owns all the rights to the X-Men, X-Factor, and Gen-X, I admit to borrowing them from time to time for my own purposes, without their permission, but since I don't make any money from this, I hope they will take pity on me and ignore what is in fact my tribute to their creations.

#...# Griffin

:…: Jono

"…" normal people with vocal cords

… Telepaths

'…' Thoughts

He wasn't going in there, no matter how much she wanted him to go with her, but then again saying no to Jubilee was like refusing ice cream, it felt wrong. She cast another longing look in the direction of the store and then turned her blue eyes back to him.

#Fine, but you aren't going to hold anything.# Griffin caved in to her wishes, again and she hugged him before she squealed with pleasure and dragged him off. 'I keep this up and I'll be just as bad Wolverine.' Griffin sighed to himself, as he followed her into the mall's pet shop Pets 'n' Critters. The smell of animals was blanketed by heavy air freshener, this was one occasion he was thankful not to have his little brothers' heightened senses, because he would have been sneezing by now. Jubilee dragged him by the arm, over to the multilevel kitten cage, where she ooed over a snobby looking little Siamese kitten with eyes as blue as her own. Griffin found the kitten cute enough but the thought of trying to beg permission from Miss Frost to have it didn't seem worth the trouble. #J-Lee I know what you're thinking, and we could never keep her hidden from Frosty forever.# It would have been nice to have an animal, but 'No pets' was an unspoken rule at the school. They both moved onto the puppies and here Griffin found himself a bit more tempted, when he saw a large liver colored puppy, with sad dove grey eyes. #What kind of dog is that, I've never seen one like him before.# Griffin asked the shop owner, the woman smiled,

"It's a Neapolitan mastiff, the Romans used them as guard dogs, they're one of the oldest breeds of dog in the world, and grow to be about 160 pounds." She added, that last bit really did it for Griffin, no way would anyone be able to call it a lap dog, but Jubilee pulled him aside.

"If I can't hide a cat, just how do you expect to hide a 160 lib dog from Frosty?" She was right, he sighed and they moved onto looking at the fish, lizards, birds, and then went to see the mice and hamsters. A cage off to one side caught his eye, in it a little brown furry face watched him with little black beady eyes, the only little brown face in the cage because all the other inhabitants were a blond/cream color. "Eeew look they have rats, how totally gorse." Jubilee said before walking off, but he kept looking into those shiny eyes, then it sneezed and used its tiny hands to scrub its face. After the two Gen-Xers left the store that one little animal stayed stuck in his head, long after thoughts of the puppy had faded. Before leaving the mall, as Jubilee hit the arcade, he found a bookstore and a scrounged up book on 'rat care, made easy' that was on sale for five dollars. When Sean came to get them Griffin sat in the back of the minivan to read as Jubilee sat shotgun, telling their teacher about the kitten and puppy they'd seen. Sean shook his head, he also knew the rules and he wasn't going to ask Emma to change them.

Once back at the school Griffin put away his things and joined the others for dinner. He felt restless, in the book the writer talked about how wonderful it was to have pet rats, about how smart they were too, but that most rats just ended up being bought as snake food. He pushed away his plate.

"Griffin if I didn't know you had a healing factor I'd think you looked ill." Emma pointed out before she asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

#I, I'm fine, just not very hungry tonight, may I be excused.# He asked. She let him go with a concerned look. He wrapped his plate in plastic wrap and put it away in the fridge before returning to his room, where he finished the book on rat care. 'I have to save it- Her.' He corrected himself remembering that the rats had been in two cages, females in one, and males in another. He wrote a list of what he'd need to get for her,

Cage Food Bedding Litter box and litter (the book said they could be trained to use one) Water bottle

He ended the list with, '…and another rat.' He'd have to have two because the book insisted that they were social creatures and unless you could be with them many hours a day you needed to give it a friend, otherwise it was like putting someone in solitary confinement. The list done he chose a place for the cage that was away from direct sight of the door, Frost never actually entered any of her student's room, unless she had to, even if his was a gathering place for the other students. Griffin decided the top of his dresser was the best spot for them, so he cleared it off… ding this forced him to finally put away the laundry that he'd been stacking there. He lay down on bed to think of names,

'Magic and Illusion, Sugar and Spice, Cheese and Cracker, yuck.' He sighed to himself just as someone knocked on his door; he opened it with his TK to find the older students there. Angelo, Page, Jono, M, Jubilee, and his sister Talica trooped in.

"Hey G, you lookin' as blue as Dr. Hank's fur." Angelo commented, "I got just the thing to cheer you up." He held up a DVD.

:A dose of vampire angst.: Jono clarified.

"'Interview with a Vampire' is so good, I just love Louis and Lestat." Page cooed.

"Armand, don't forget him, he shows up late in the film but he's impressive too." M added, as Griffin sat up suddenly.

#Louis and Armand!# it was perfect, after all the topic of rats did come up a lot in the film, even if they were mostly considered a snack food, it would be his little joke to name his two rats after two vampires.

"See guys he looks happier already." Jubilee smiled, Griffin hugged her impulsively.

#I'm fine J-Lee, I was just thinking about something. Actually guys I need you're help, I need you to distract Emma and Sean tomorrow morning, there's something I didn't get at the mall today but I don't want them to know about it."# They started arguing about why he wanted them to do this, and after Jono said,

:Look if you forgot to get underwear its not that embarrassing, really.: So Griffin made them promise not to tell anyone what he was going to tell them. Jubilee sighed when he was done explaining,

"You're not kidding, Griffin its a rat, you've obsessed with saving a rat."

#Um, two rats actually, please guys, they'll end up snake food if I don't get them.# They saw that this meant a lot to him, so in the end they agreed to help him out.

'Rats.' Jubilee rolled here eyes once more before leaving the room.

The next day he ate his dinner for breakfast, before telling Sean that he was joining Page for her morning jog, after that the others saw to it that Emma and Sean were kept occupied with endless questions, Jubilee and the girls had even resorted to asking Emma 'where do babies come from?' and the answer had taken a good hour of stammering and blushing from Sean as he tried to explain, because Emma had pointed out to him 'that the male usually started the whole thing' so he should be the one explain it to them. Angelo even went as far as blocking up a toilet when Emma had started to ask if anyone had seen Griffin around.

During all this Griffin had quickly flown into town and hurried back to the pet shop, stepping in he checked right away to see if 'she' was still in the cage. She was so he called the assistant over at once,

#I want her, the little brown one.# Out of all the rats, two males, and seven females, there was only one brown one. #Only I want to chose some other stuff before you put her in a box, just don't sell her to anyone else okay?#

"Weren't you in here yesterday?" He blushed, but nodded 'yes'. "She spoke to you, didn't she." Griffin understood what the assistant meant when she said 'spoke', out of all the pets in the store it was this one little rat he couldn't get over. He chose a good size cage, picked up a twenty lib bag of recycled news paper pellets (because rats are allergic to pine and cedar shavings), then talked food with the woman, who said blocks were better then mixed food because the rats couldn't just pick out the stuff they liked and leave the rest. Once everything was bagged and paid for they went to box up his rats. The clerk had been pleased when he said he wanted two so the brown one wouldn't be lonely. Only when it came down to choosing the second rat he didn't know which one to take. The six blond female were all huddled together in a plastic farmhouse, as the brown one pressed her face to the bars to look at him again. The woman unceremoniously dumped them out of the house and they ran around looking for a new spot to hide. Griffin saw the brown rat standing on one of the other rats and it didn't seem to mind being stood on. Seeing that the blond one didn't fight the brown, but just let herself be walked on, he chose her (later he would find out that she had white markings splashed across on her tummy and odd red on black eyes). Once they were in the box two little noses immediately poked out the air holes and wiggled at him, Griffin smiled at the clerk and her eyes got a frightened look to them. He'd forgotten to hide his teeth with an illusion,

#Um… you should see my dad's, they're a family trait, dentists wants to charge an arm to fix it.# He explained before leaving, the big bag of rat stuff in one hand, the cage under his other arm, and the box of rats held to his chest with the arm that carried the bag, with his TK he was able to juggle the things more easily and also shield the box from the wind as he flew back to school. Griffin entered his room through the skylight, set everything down, and took a deep breath. He'd done it, and he'd gotten back in one piece, in moments he was setting up the cage, snapping it together, lining it with paper and filling it with some shredded paper towels. The litter box was hung in place and filled with pellets, food dish set out and water bottle filled and suspended outside the cage with only the nozzle inside for the rats to drink from. Then he took the cardboard critter box and slowly up ended it till the two rats slid out onto the floor of the cage. The blond, Armand, took one look up at him and hid under the litter box, Louis, the brown one, looked at him and didn't run away. Slowly griffin reached into the cage and petted her, with one finger. Louis nipped at him but not hard enough to break the skin, she was just checking to see if he was food, then she went to join Armand. Griffin picked up everything then made it downstairs to join the others.

"Just where have you been all morning?" Emma asked as soon as she saw him.

#Hunting down some rats.# He answered honestly.

"We have rats! Sean hurry up and call someone at once." Griffin quickly added,

#Outside!#

"Oh." They had lunch then after swearing the younger kids, Artie, Leach, the twins Loric and Navar, to secrecy, Griffin took them all along to meet his new pets. In his room they all looked at the white cage, only little eyes could be seen from under litter box's shadow, where the rats' had pulled all the paper toweling to create a nest. Jono shrugged, lots of his friends back in England had had rats as pets,

:They make good enough pets, if you're into that kind of thing.: M stepped back as the papers shifted,

"Emma will not be pleased if she ever learns about this." She pointed out, needlessly.

"We had rats in LA but that was because of slumlords, never thought to see some kept as pets." Angelo commented, as the younger kids said they were cool, and Talica said that their twitching whiskers were cute. Page said that on the farm back in Kentucky rats weren't welcome, but domestic ones like his should be fine. Jubilee just looked at the cage and summed her feelings up with,

"Eeew." But they all agreed not to tell Emma or Sean about Griffin's new pets.

"Artie want to know what you call them." Leach said as the little pink boy beside him projected an image of a rat and a question mark.

#The brown one is Louis, the blond Armand.# The older students all got his joke and laughed, as the others moved off Griffin stayed to talk to his pets, he wanted to give them a day to adjust to being here before trying to hold them. Soon Louis was poking her head out of the nest to see him better, Griffin stuck his finger into the cage just as the twins and the little kids returned. #Never feed them through the bars of the cage, or after that they'll think your fingers are food and they'll bite you.# He explained to them, and the boys nodded. That night the rats came out to play, they were nocturnal after all. Griffin sat on the foot of his bed and watched them exploring the cage, at one point he saw Armand sneak up on Louis and nip at her back, tugging on a fold of skin. He became nervous as they started wrestling and jumping on each other, were they fighting, would he have to separate them, or maybe even bring Armand back to the store and choose another one? Then he saw that they were playing a game like tag and if one got too rough the other let out a squeak and the first one backed off.

The time flew by as he learned what foods they liked, air popped popcorn, corn, peas, and the biggest hit Cheerios ™ which they'd do anything to get. Trying to keep the cage clean was easy because for the most part they did use the litter box, and at first the rats hid when the top was opened, but as Louis became use to him patting her or even holding her for short periods of time, she would now try to climb out as tried to clean up after them. He solved this problem by getting a carrying cage to put them in as he cleaned the big one. Then once, feeling bad that he never took Armand out of the cage (she was still to afraid of him) he took her out gently only to learn that she was as fast as lightning. He almost wasn't able to catch her, and he wouldn't have without using his TK to pick her up before she hid under a bookshelf.

#Army you should be called Houdini the way you escape.# He decided she needed more time to get to know him better before trying to hold her more. Soon after that he decided to start changing their cage in his bathroom, it had less places to hide and had no way they could escape from it once he let them loose from the cage. Armand, or Army as he'd started to call her, came out once then rushed back into the ice cream container he'd zip stripped to the side of their cage as a house for them. Louis, who was like a little 'popping fresh' when you petted her tummy, would come out, look around and even sit on his shoulder or cling to the cage sides as he washed it out. The other kids lost interest in them because as Angelo put it,

"They don't 'do' anything." Griffin was stunned; his 'kids' did all kinds of things, but at least Jubilee would still come watch them with him.

"You know, Army is kinda cute." She said one day.

#Glad you like her, we'll call her yours, she's a real firecracker like you… really fast on her feet, so careful if you ever pick her up.# He advised,

"Mine? I, um do I have to touch her?" Griffin sighed.

#No, just talk to her and brining her a treat now and then will be fine.# He offered, #No bubblegum.# Griffin added quickly as he saw her smile. It was well into week two that Griffin received a call from one of his moms, Mystique to be precise.

"What on earth cost you $120.00 at a pet store?" She asked, months ago she'd given credit cards to Talica, the twins and him with a year's worth of allowance as its limit, buying the rats had been the first time he'd ever used his.

#Um rats, but please don't tell Frost or Sean, I sort of didn't ask if I could get them.# He informed her, becoming worried.

"Rats? You bought rats?"

#Yes, Louis and Armand.# She started to laugh as he told her about them. "Well I want at least photos, from the way you put it these are my 'grandchildren' we're talking about." She teased him, "You sound just like a proud father when you talk about them." Griffin sat at the computer and quickly sent off some photos he'd taken of the 'kids', he had about fifty pictures of them by now. #Check you're email, mom I just sent the pics to you.# Mystique looked at them and told Griffin,

"Why they 'are' just adorable aren't they." A noise from her end of the line broke her off and his dad, Sabretooth, suddenly came on the phone,

"Hey cub, what's with sedin' out pics of your dinner over the net?"

#Dad those aren't food, they're my pets.# Griffin defended.

"Ya don't say, Frost lets you keep 'em?"

#Well what she doesn't know wont hurt her.# Was all Griffin said as Victor started laughing. After that unknown to Griffin, news of his rats spared to all the X teams, because Jubilee told Logan, who told the X-Men, Mystique told Forge, who told X-Factor, Nightcrawler heard from Rogue then told eXcalibur, and Cable heard from Scott and told X-Force… but all were cautioned not to tell Emma Frost or Sean Cassidy. It was Hank who gotten to visit Griffin's rats first, sneaking up to see them when he was visiting Gen-X to give a lecture on biology. He walked into the attic room find Griffin frantic, because he had discovered that there was red around Army's nose and he thought she'd been hurt or bitten by Louis. Thankfully Hank was able to tell him that a rat's secretions, like their tears, had a red pigment to them, and often looked like blood. #They are more like vampires then I thought.#

"You only have to watch that it doesn't become too bad, that indicated a possible lung infection." After that one time Army was fine and Hank declared them to be 'cute as buttons' to the rest of the X-Men when he returned to the mansion.

One day when Griffin was in math class, he felt someone poke him in the side, he saw no one, and then his pen moved in his hand as he felt an invisible hand take his. He was made to write the words,

Army got out, we went after her but then Louis got away too.

Griffin jumped and ran from the room, leaving his classmates sitting there surprised and Sean stunned by his actions. Jubilee looked over at her friend's desk and saw the note.

"Code R people, I repeat we've got a code R!" She cried out and as one all the students stood up and scattered from the room. To Sean Jubilee smiled and said, "Spontaneous bomb location exercise sir, stay here this could get messy." Then she took off, following the others from the room. Page took her position watching Emma's office door, where the older woman was grading English papers, from there she could see the whole hall and a large part of the entrance. Jono covered his territory, the basement. M took to the kitchen as Angelo started looking in the boy's dorms. Talica searched through the girl's dorms; Leach and Artie were looking in closets and in the living room, and Jubilee checked bathrooms. Griffin set the twins to sniffing for Louis and Armand, as he used his TK to sweep every nook and cranny of his room, gently nudging under every dresser, bookshelf, and in his closet. He moved the cage to floor level, with the hope one or both rats would return on its own. A scream from the direction of the hall had him rushing to find Jubilee who was dashing down the corridor towards him,

#Did you find one?# He asked hopefully,

"I'll say, I found Army in the girl's bathroom, playing with the paper in a trashcan, I tried to pick her up but she slipped through my fingers and leapt at me. I swear she flipped me the bird before she went ran out the door." Jubilee insisted.

#Yup, that was Army alright.# They searched the hallway as Griffin called their names, a flash of cream going over the top step had them running to the edge of the landing. Army ran past someone, who surprised let out a shout, but because it was Banshee it rocked the chandelier. Griffin caged the little escapee with his TK when Army paused in fright at the loud noise, then he scooped her up and put her into the little carrying cage.

"What in the name of Cu Chulainn is that?" Sean asked pointing at the cage Griffin held, where a little creature sitting in its haunches was gripping the bars with its front paws, needing only a tin cup and a striped outfit to complete the image she projected of being a prisoner. Griffin gave her a soothing pat along her back with his TK,

#This is Army, well Armand actually, but you didn't by any chance happen to see a brown one? Louis is still missing.# Sean looked at him incredulously for a moment,

"Are ye saying that there are two of these pests on the loose?" Griffin thought that under the circumstances he would let the 'pest' reference slide, but Jubilee didn't,

"Hey, watch it Irish they're his pets not pests, actually they're really… nice." Jubilee finished lamely, as the other students joined them.

"No luck amigo, no sign of them and the twins lost the sent." Angelo said before he saw Army,

#We found Armand, but Louis is still missing.# Because Griffin's voice was a projection of his sound effect power, he didn't sound choked up, but anyone looking at him could tell he was stricken, his eyes were misty and his shoulders fell. #Louis.# His voice echoed softly thought the school.

"We could call Wolvie, he could-" Griffin shook his head 'no', as his stomach twisted, he was a bad parent; he'd lost one of his kids. Jubilee went to call Logan anyway as Emma came out of her office, unable to ignore all the noise and then the powerful waves of sorrow seeping past her mental shields, and these emotions were coming from one of her students.

"What is going on here?" Soon everyone but Griffin was telling her about the rats, she looked at poor little Army, sitting alone in the carrying cage, then at Griffin who looked away. "Dear we can get you another rat." Griffin blanched before turning away, taking Army back to his room, to him it was poetic justice that the rat he loved most was gone and he was now alone with the one he'd taken just so Louis would have a friend. Late into the night the sound of light footsteps and whispered calls of,

#Louis.# reached them in their rooms as Griffin continued his search. By morning he was exhausted and unsuccessful. Emma watched him drift aimlessly about still looking, how could someone become so attached to something as odd as a rat? By ten am she'd had enough, Emma left the school taking her coat, purse, and keys.

Hours later she was returning when a tiny sneeze reached her, she stopped the car looking around and saw a little brown head poke out of her coat pocket that was tossed across the passenger seat,

"Let me guess, you are the famous Louis." At the sound of her name the rat looked at Emma and rubbed its nose, "bless you." Louis climbed out of the pocket and lay on her back, tummy up, so Emma slowly reached over and tickled her belly. Little hands reached out and held onto her finger tip. "Little charmer aren't you." Emma picked her up. "I had a rat once, for about three days, when I'd been sent by my parents to an asylum for the insane. I was taming the rat, but the guards found out and killed it." Louis climbed up to her shoulder and curled up near her neck. "Griffin misses you." She assured the little passenger as she started the car again, careful to keep Louis on her shoulder. When they arrived home Emma summoned her students, and ordered Griffin to meet her by the car. "This is yours I believe, don't worry it isn't a replacement there weren't any brown ones left. She was hiding in my coat pocket." Emma lifted her hands to show Louis leaning casually against her thumb. Griffin took her gently and Emma was the only one to see a tear run down his cheek as he happily held his pet close. "Angelo, Jono if you would please unload the trunk. Jubilee please help me." Jubilee followed her teacher to the backseat of the BMW, "Sean you too." Emma said as she put a box into Jubilee's hands. A tiny indignant meow came from inside it. Jubilee quickly opened the box and saw the little Siamese kitten looking up at her. "The shop owner remembered you and Griffin; after I learned that there weren't anymore brown rats to be had the woman said that you'd admired this kitten. A purebred lilac point, I must say you have good taste." All the girls cooed over the little cat in the Asian girl's hands, the kitten preened under all the attention. Sean watched all this with a smug smile on his lips and the boys started to unload the car, bags of pet care products, toys and…

"Emma that be a bag of puppy food, they gave ye the wrong one." He pointed out,

"No it's for him." With that she handed Sean about ten pounds of liver colored, sleepy, puppy. Angelo took one look at its overly wrinkled face and said,

"Man what a face, was it hit by a truck?" Angelo was joking, but it was the Neo puppy Griffin had been looking at, only he wasn't interested in it now, he only held Louis closer.

#I'll still love you more Lou.# He whispered, only Emma heard him. A gasp from Banshee had everyone looking at him.

"The wee Lad just let himself go on me!" M giggled first, followed by the others as a wet spot spread down Sean's hip. The scene was even funnier to Wolverine, who'd just arrived on his motorcycle, to offer his help in the great rat hunt.

Orchid, the kitten turned out to be very independent, but she would consent to sleep in the girl's dorm, soon she chose Jubilee's bed because with Page she was woken up way too early when that girl went jogging in the mornings, M didn't like to share her pillows, but with Jubilee she was able to sleep late, snuggle with her, and Jubes took her to visit Army and Louis sometimes. Oberon, the puppy took a liking, well more of a 'loving' to Jono of all people, and showed the British boy the same level of devotion as a lovesick groupie. Oberon wasn't put off by Jono only having half a face, and he was happy to lick any part of the Englishman that came within range of his tongue. The dog's devotion did wonders for Jono's self-esteem, and it was discovered that Jono had been sneaking the puppy to his room and letting him sleep in his bed, he protested that Oberon was lonely all by himself in his kennel cage. The others all shared the new pets too, and they were considered family members now. Griffin still had eyes only for Louis and it turned out Army took a liking to Emma and didn't mind being touched by her, or riding around on the teacher's shoulder. Griffin was happy to share his pets because now both rats were able to come out of the cage. The Sh'ar tracking chips that Hank had implanted in all the animals was a big help too. As for Louis, she surprised everyone, one day when they heard Griffin yell,

#Kittens!# Everyone came running,

"What is it?" Jubilee asked looking in the cage, "Oh babies! She has babies."

#That's what I said, kittens are what baby rats are called. She must have met a male during her escape.# Sure enough there were at least ten squirming little bodies clustered around Louis, #I'm a grandpa!# Griffin had to sit down. Emma looked at the babies and went to make a phone call, Louis hadn't left the house during her escape, until she'd hitched a ride in her coat, which meant somewhere in the school there was a non-domestic male rat.

"Hello may I speak with Logan please."

The End

Note: The Rats Louis and Armand are really mine, so please don't use them with out my permission. Thank you