After dinner Steph, Remy, and Danial met outside on the front lawn, looking around.
"Den El' told ya t' be here to?" Remy said after a moment of silence.
"Yup," Steph said.
"But why?" Danial asked, looking around.
"Because," Ellen said, appearing out of the darkness next to them. "I got Logan to turn on the security systems." Immediately all three teens jerked and then froze.
"No way!" Steph said, shaking her head. "If the alarms and stuff are on, you are not gonna catch me out here movin' around!"
"We have to," Ellen growled. "If we can make it through the securities unscathed, that means others can too, now hurry up so we can get through and back to bed."
"Why we doin' dis?" Remy asked, eyes narrowing. Ellen scowled at him.
"Because the people you decided to mess with are neither stupid nor forgetful, they'll come after the mutants who broke into their base and stole their prisoner and maybe killed one of their own mutants, the Labs do not forget and they will find any glitch in any security system that gets in their way to eliminate their problems," she said. Remy sighed and Steph grunted and stood up straight, her eyes glinting in the moonlight.
"So we'll stop them by getting ourselves killed by our own security systems?" she challenged. Ellen growled.
"You know the security systems, Logan told me you helped set some of them up. If anyone can get past them, you can. Now let's hurry up."
"Fine," Steph grumbled, backing down, arms folded stubbornly over her chest.
"So we goin' or standin' here all night?" Remy asked.
"Huh, I doubt we'll all be standing for long out here," Danial muttered.
----
"Ouch, no, ouch!" Steph said as Hank found another couple of needles in the side of her head and pulled them out distastefully.
"I am trying to be as gentle as possible young lady," he said, the disapproval of her state clear in his voice and eyes. Remy chuckled from the wall he was leaning on, his hand wrapped up from the minor burn he had gotten from a rocket that was intended to hit him in the chest. Danial was only a little scratched up from the night they had spent walking or running over the entire mansion grounds and dodging the various defenses hurled at them, led by Ellen, who slinked through the shadows and was as hard to follow as an ant in tall grass.
"I didn't t'ink dat you'd be hit by a tree," he joked. "Ya dodged every miss'le and den ran into a branch dat was pretty obvious, n' then fell into de prickle bush, heeheehee." Steph glared at him.
"At least I could dodge every rocket!" she shot back. "And you don't exactly look more for branches when you're being chased by a bunch of missiles." Danial snorted.
"It was still funny," he said. Steph got up to teach him a lesson when Hank gently pushed her back down.
"No fighting," he said. "And I admit I still miss the point of you four going out into the dark woods trying to set off the alarms."
"We didn't really get the suicide mission either, but we made it out ok," Danial shrugged. "Ellen's still out there though. She just grumbled when Steph ran into the tree and told us to go back, she said she'd finish the round by herself."
"She could get killed out there," Hank pointed out, straightening. The three teenagers exchanged looks.
"Uh..." they said. Hank sighed as the medbay door opened and Ellen strutted in, a few long, slightly bleeding scraped on one powerful shoulder as she looked around, her head turning as she looked at the wounds on her friends and then sat in teh middle of the floor, turning her attention to the paw that had some blood running down it.
"Goodness!" Hank said, "What happened?" But Ellen ignored him, closing her eyes as she raised her paw and licked it, starting to clean the blood off with her pink tongue.
"Gross!" Danial said, making a face.
"How's it taste?" Steph asked, grinning.
"It taste's like blood," Ellen said, separating her toes as her claws slid out automatically, her tongue halfway wrapping around each toe as she licked it. As Hank approached she opened her eyes and looked up briefly before closing them.
"You got hit?" he guessed. Ellen nodded.
"Spinning blade of Doom I suppose," she said, shrugging her uninjured shoulder.
"Come over here so I can treat that," Hank instructed, pointing at the table Steph was sitting on. Steph automatically moved over to make room but Ellen didn't move, shrinking into Ellen as she lowered her hand. Getting up Ellen shrugged at Hank.
"Why? Didn't you want a blood sample first?" she asked. Hank paused.
"Well, of course," he said. "But I would rather patch this up before I take any more blood from your system."
"Fine then," Ellen said, sitting next to Steph as Hank pulled out more bandages.
"So," Remy asked. "Do de defenses work? Or will we need t' go try n' kill ourselves again?"
"Nope, seems well guarded enough to me," Ellen said. "We barley got out of there unharmed and we knew exactly when everything was coming, so it should be fine for a first warning. Logan said they're all working."
"I have a question!" Steph said loudly and suddenly.
"What?" Remy asked, sighing.
"Can we go get some food now?"
-----
"So Ellen, where do you come from?" Danial asked as the teens sat down to eat. Ellen looked around at the other students and then at them.
"Hm?" she said. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
"What were ya thinking about?" Steph asked curiously.
"Oh nothing, just, there are a lot of mutants here huh?" Ellen replied, looking around again.
"Yeah," Remy said. "Dat why I t'ink we'd do well against de muties lookin' for us chere. Dis place is trouble for anyone who wants t' cause problems."
"Probably," Ellen agreed. "But what's to stop people from just sending down a couple nukes? Who ever said that it would end up being a straight out fight between groups, with a battlefield and a chance for anyone to win?"
"Nukes?" Danial repeated. Ellen shook her head.
"Never mind, I'm probably just overreacting, but you have to think about that," she said, putting some of her salad in her mouth and chewing slowly.
"I don't t'ink 'bout it much," Remy said, shrugging and leaning back in his chair. "I t'ink dat we'd figure anyt'in out in any amount of time, when de time comes."
"So you'll just leave it up to chance?" Ellen said skeptically. Steph smiled.
"Nope," she said. "Rem means right now, this very second, it's very unlikely anything will attack us, so we should think more about our food for now. We'll deal with the stuff when it's more appropriate, even though it's not like we'll have much of a say anyway. Now that we came back dad's threatened to lock me in the holding cell for a month if I ever try that again, and the other parents think that they're the ones who need t' handle this now. We're still jus' kids, even if we did rescue Hank."
"So you'll leave it to the adults," Ellen said, nodding but not looking at all happy.
"Why not?" Danial asked. "We're still only Junior X Men, we shouldn't even have gone to rescue Hank anyway. And it's like Steph said, nothing's gonna attack us right here." All of a sudden they heard a small snikt and then a chopping noise, and suddenly with a startled yell Remy fell over backwards, landing with a loud thud.
"Hey!" he cried as another yell answered.
"BEESHA BAM ERMY!!!" Ruhko cried as she jumped up and down, waving her claws and growling at him. Danial burst out laughing as Steph got up and also laughing tried to grab at Ruhko, who neatly dodged and ran under the table. Growling himself Remy got to all fours and followed, crawling quickly.
"Dat's de las' time you do dat petite!" he said. Ruhko screamed happily and ran out from under the table, followed quickly by Remy as she ran through the cafeteria, under tables and through crowds with Remy on her tail, grinning as he finally caught her and started to tickles her mercilessly.
"Nyonononono!" the little girl screamed through her laughter.
"You t'ink you can jus' knock me over every day, do ya?" Remy said playfully.
"No! Ermy nyonono!" Ruhko cried. Laughing Remy stopped and sat down, picking Ruhko up and looking at her.
"No more o' dat, right?" he said, still laughing. Ruhko blinked, calming down somewhat.
"Ermy say funny words, like 'is dada!" she replied. Steph laughed as she caught up.
"So you can't understand Rem, huh?" she said, taking Ruhko from Remy and looking at her.
"No," Ruhko said seriously. "Ermy? No."
"Well what are ya gonna do 'bout that?" Steph asked, shrugging. Ruhko thought for a moment.
"Teach." She said. Steph raised an eyebrow.
"Teach? You're gonna teach him to talk?" she asked.
"Yup," Ruhko said, nodding as Steph sat her down, the small girl pushed Remy over and sat on his chest.
"Ach!" Remy said. "What're you feedin' her chere? She's as big as my pa! Remy's getting' crushed!"
"And how big is that?" Steph asked, seeing Remy Sr. approaching from an angle his son could not. Remy sighed.
"Dad's as big as de elephant in de World Record book," he said.
"Oh really?" Remy Sr. asked, arriving and crossing his arms, looking down at him son in amusement. Remy jumped, making Ruhko roll off his chest with a startled squeak and then a testy growl.
"Oh, pa!" Remy said. "Uh..."
"Don' try," Remy Sr. said, shaking his head and smiling, then looking at Ruhko. "I hear you teachin' my son how t' talk?" he said.
"You no talk either!" Ruhko said fiercely. "I teach both ya talk good now!" Steph chuckled.
"I wouldn't Mr. LeBeau," she said as Remy Sr. opened his mouth. "Ruk'll chop ya up with those claws of hers."
"They!" Ruhko said, glaring at Remy Jr. challengingly.
"Dey," Remy repeated.
"NO!" Ruhko yelled. "They!" Remy looked up at Steph for help, and the teen decided that any moment Ruhko's clenched fists were going to have claws growing out of them and she quickly picked up Ruhko, spinning her around and did her best Remy impression.
"They," she repeated. Ruhko, having not seen who spoke and too startled at being spun around, giggled.
"Yay!" she said. Steph stopped spinning Ruhko and looked at her, smiling.
"Yeah, yay," she said. "Now come on, I'll be Rogue's goin' nuts looking for ya."
"No Rug, dada," Ruhko said. "In Danger Room!"
"Is that the only name you get right?" Steph asked as she walked away, looking at Ruhko and shaking her head. "You should have gotten my name before Danger Room!"
"Stephny!" Ruhko cried out.
"Steph," Steph replied.
"Stephny!"
"No, Steph!"
"STEPHNY!!!"
"Alright, alright! Stephny then," Steph grumbled as she walked away. "I'll catch up with you guys later."
"Yeah," Danial said. "I've got to get to a class now anyway."
"Class?" Remy repeated, eyes narrowing. "It's Sunday!"
"Extra credit though, I'm working with Hank in his lab," Danial said, shaking his head. "Experiments and stuff, it's great!" Remy shook his head and rolled his eyes, but Ellen looked interested.
"What kind of experiments?" she asked.
"Lot's of stuff," Danial replied. "Usually with plants though."
"Can I come?" Ellen asked.
"You into science chere?" Remy Sr. asked. Ellen nodded.
"Yes," she said.
"I don't think Hank would mind," Danial shrugged. "Sure. But we have to hurry or we'll be late." Ellen nodded and got up, and the two teens said goodbye to Remy and his father and then left, leaving the two LeBeau's alone. Remy got up and smiled at his father.
"Yes?" he said.
"As big as n' elephant huh?" Remy Sr. replied.
"Yeah," Remy replied, laughing. His father laughed to and then got serious.
"We need t' go," he said. "It's good dat your friends are already busy."
"Where?" Remy asked.
"You have t' go talk to de Professor," Remy Sr. said.
"'Bout what?" Remy asked.
"He'll tell you, but you need t' hurry," Remy Sr. said. "C'mon."