A/N

Well, sorry for the lull in updates on this one, I've been trying my best to keep my updates on time, but it's been difficult. But I'm trying!

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He had only planned to walk outside for a minute, to see if the car was still working. He had notoriously bad luck with cars, probably because he always got the cheapest ones. He always had to ditch them after awhile, as they became useless, traceable, or just broke down. He looked under the hood. He'd become an expert at fixing up old cars to squeeze whatever miles he could get out of them.

Something passed overhead and blew up a gust of wind, throwing sand, sticks, and leaves into his face. He jerked his hat down and closed his jacket against the onslaught ducking away as the hood of the car slammed shut.

"What in…" He looked over his shoulder and saw the large jet making a landing behind the shack.

He stayed still for a moment, his hat still overshadowing his face. He wondered if he had ticked off some sort of angry deity that was determined to make sure his life was as difficult as possible.

Then he saw Logan round the building and knew he was in deep trouble.

"YOU!" Out came those claws and Logan charged full tilt at him.  Arcane immediately shot his hand into his coat and brought out his gun just as Logan stepped into slashing range.

"Stop! Both of you!"

His gun had been aimed towards the center of Logan's body mass when he realized he couldn't move his arms anymore. And the Wolverine's claws were lightly digging into his side.

"We are not here to start fights, Wolverine. Arcane, we will not harm you." The old man in the wheelchair came up beside them. He was clearly straining to keep them from killing each other, though Arcane had doubts that one shot would take down Logan. Serious doubts.

"Put away your claws Wolverine. From what I can gather from the stray thoughts I've been hearing, Arcane has not harmed the students in any way, he's actually been helping them. Arcane, we only came to talk with the students, there is no need to be alarmed for your life, put the gun down." The Professor ordered them. Logan looked furious, and Arcane surely didn't want to put his gun down if Logan was still looking at him that way. He would find his own place on the obituaries.

"Logan, please." The Professor persisted.

Logan slowly withdrew his claws. Arcane allowed his gun to drop. He also started thinking some foul things and was glad that telepaths had trouble reading his mind, though with as much as he was thinking, he'd be surprised if this one didn't pick up on some of it.

"Is Julian inside your house, Arcane?"

"I don't know. Don't you know? I would assume you being a telepath; you'd keep track of these things." Arcane holstered the gun into the shoulder holster underneath his jacket and turned back to the car. He heard Logan snarl something unintelligible and go stomping off towards the shack.

"We apologize for inconveniencing you, Arcane." The professor commented before wheeling away.

"I'm glad someone is." He said offhandedly as he pulled the hood back up. It creaked in protest and he mentally cursed as he noticed the way the hood sat. He'd have to fix it if he wanted the hood to close correctly.

This was not the wonderfully quiet solitude he had hoped for.

"XAVIER! YOU HAVE A LOT TO ANSWER FOR!" Warren shouted.

Not at all.

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Julian looked curiously from just inside a doorway as the Professor and Mr. Logan tried to calm the winged man down. He was furious about something, and his blonde hair was a mess.

"You left me in the woods and you didn't tell me what I was getting into!"

"Now Warren, let's be reasonable here, they're only children." The Professor said consolingly.

"Only children, ONLY CHILDREN?! Do you know what I've been through? I wish I could show you. I wish you could have been in my place!"

"What's yer problem bub? They couldn't a'been too much trouble."

"Oh, you'd think that, wouldn't you? But then they start disappearing and bringing bears back to camp and setting off skunks and swarms of bees and squirrels and—"

"Warren, please calm down, I know the students are a bit difficult to deal with, but we're here to help now."

"Fine. Then I'm going back to New York!" The winged man flung his wings open with a purpose.

"Wait! We still need your help, and I promise, we will help take care of everything. You can relax now, we will only need you for a few more days, I promise."

The winged man seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he sighed. "I must be insane to stay."

"I'll say." Mr. Logan snickered low enough so the winged man couldn't hear him. But he could hear Mr. Logan just fine.

"What's going on?" Jamie and Kurt appeared at his side.

"The Professor and Mr. Logan are here and they were talking to that winged guy."

"Is Warren staying?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah."

"I woulda thought he'd cut out."

"Me too, but the Professor said he needed him." Julian said back.

"Children, please come here." The Professor beckoned them. Julian was a little taken aback that he knew they were there, but stepped forward anyway.

"Julian, I came here to see you about the students who disappeared."

"I don't know where they went." Julian shrugged his shoulders.

"No, but I believe you can find out and we can discover what we can do to hel—"

THUNK!

"Squirrel's back." Kurt said as he looked at the window. Mr. Logan and The Professor both stared at the window for a minute.

"Well…" The Professor said uncertainly for a minute, then shook his head. "As I was saying, I believe you can communicate with the animals and find out if there's anything we can do to help our missing teammates."

"I dunno. I don't think that it'll work the way you think it will." Julian shook his head. "I don't know if I'll be able to tell you what they're saying."

"I only ask that you try."

THUNK!

"What is with that rodent?" Mr. Logan growled.

"He's crazy." He told him. Mr. Logan just gave him a funny look.

"Where are the dogs?" The Professor asked.

"Cassius and Brutus said they were going out to find food, and Doggy didn't say anything, he just left."

"You understand the dogs well. Can you use them to decipher what the animals are saying?"

"Maybe. I don't know, I'll have to ask them."

"So….Can we go to the Burger Bomb?" Jamie asked hopefully. Mr. Logan shook his head.

"You kids want food, you're going to have to live of the land. And I'll teach you."

"Cool. When do we start?"

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Oh dear. Something tells me that none of the parties know exactly what they're getting into.

Asteria: Heh, Thank you, I thought it was pretty funny when I wrote it, and I'm glad other people share my sense of humor. I'm glad you liked it!

Anon(girl):Well, At least you know when they sleep. It gives you an edge, no? And Fishy helps too. Anyway, glad you liked the chapter!

PrincessofWildfire: Thank you very much. I'm glad you hold my writing to such a high standard, it really makes me very happy!  I hope you like this chapter as well!

Chrissy: *shudders* Don't care for bees and I especially don't care for wasps. I've been stung by the latter several times. And the one time with the former was pretty nasty too. I'm glad you liked the chapter! I hope you like this one too, and I'm glad you liked that exchange.

Kally will take the reviews again! And watch out for that squirrel, he may get into the coffee.