Runaway

Thornn managed to sneak outside after most of the police had left. She paced in the garden, thinking. A rustle startled her. "Who's there?" She bared her claws. "Show yourself!"

Evan came out of the bushes. "Whoa! Thornn it's me!"

"Evan you nearly cost me one of my nine lives," Thornn gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about Spears," Evan said.

"Evan they think you did it!" Thornn told him.

"I know!" Evan told her. "I came to tell Auntie O I didn't!"

"You gotta get out of here! The cops are crawling all over the place!" Thornn told him.

"Damn it!" Evan hissed. "Look just tell Storm that I didn't do it, okay? Tell her I'm going away for a while but I'll be back when things die down. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah I got it," Thornn nodded.

"I'm counting on you Thornn," Evan said.

"You always could count on me," Thornn looked at him. "It was you I couldn't count on."

"Thornn…" Evan sighed.

"Just get out of here!" Thornn snapped. "Go! Before Xavier senses you!"

Evan nodded and left. Thornn shuddered and walked inside the house. She was met inside by one of the cops. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Getting some air," Thornn snapped. "What's it to you?"

"Back inside," He waved her in.

She walked back into the library in a huff with the other students. Abrams was there. "All right are you sure that none of you know where Daniels is?"

"Positive," Scott told him. "We've been over this! None of us saw him."

"Chief!" An officer ran in. "Daniels is here!"

"WHAT?" Abrams shouted.

"A couple of our guys saw him just a few minutes ago on the security monitor!" He said pointing to Thornn. "Talking to her!"

"Well what the hell are you doing standing around here! Get him!" Abrams shouted. He glared at Thornn then the other X-Men. "So none of you know where he is huh? Funny about that!"

"Officer let us talk to him," Jean pleaded. "Maybe we can get him to turn himself in!"

"Oh no!" Abrams shouted. "You people have done enough! I want all of you to stay right here in this room now! Nobody leaves! Any one of you puts as much as a toe outside I'll haul you in for aiding and abetting! Now!"

Reluctantly the mutants stayed inside. "This night is never going to end…" Kitty groaned.

"They can try all they like," Thornn said. "There's a storm drain not far from here. They'll never catch him once he gets underground!"

"What the hell were you thinking Thornn?" Scott shouted at her. "Now you've given the police another reason not to trust us! Thanks a lot!"

"I just didn't want Evan to get killed!" Thornn shouted, nearly in tears. "He said he didn't do it!"

"He's on the run from the cops!" Ray snapped. "Of course he's gonna say he didn't do it!"

"How could you not try and contact the Professor at least?" Scott snapped. "You know he can pick up your thoughts if you concentrate hard enough! What were you thinking?"

"I just…I just…" Thornn teared up and ran to her room.

"Way to go Scott," Jean huffed.

"What?" Scott looked at her.

"Can't you see how upset she is?" Jean yelled at him.

"I'm just saying this is hard enough on all of us," Scott said. "The last thing we need right now is for people to be calling us murderers!"

"This isn't just about mutants having a bad name Scott!" Rogue snapped at him. "Evan is our friend! No matter what he's still one of us! What you want Ororo to see her nephew in jail?"

"Of course not!" Scott yelled. "But there's a bigger picture here and you all know it!"

"Yeah well maybe sometimes you should take a look at the smaller picture," Tabitha told him.

"Look I know it looks bad but if Evan's innocent…" Scott shouted.

"What do you mean if?" Amara shouted. "You think he did it didn't you?"

"No way!" Kurt shouted. "Evan would never do something like that!"

"Well you gotta admit it doesn't look good," Ray told them.

"Spears attacked his aunt on top of all that Power 8 garbage," Tabitha said. "That's a motive if I've ever heard one."

"He had the opportunity," Ray said. "And they found one of his spikes in Spears."

"Oh man," Roberto groaned. "Evan is gonna fry!"

"You don't think they'll send him to the chair do ya?" Sam asked.

"I meant Storm once she gets her hands on him," Roberto explained. "But you gotta admit that's a possibility."

"Look we'll figure this out," Scott said. "Somehow if worse comes to worse, if Evan's innocent the courts will acquit him."

"Yeah right!" Tabitha huffed.

"That's easy for you to say," Jesse grunted. "You're white."

"What?" Scott looked at him. "That is…"

"No it isn't," Jubilee sighed. "I hate to say it but he's got a point."

"What are you talking about?" Jean asked.

"Jean before we all got outed as mutants you may have been just kids," Jesse explained. "But some of us were black kids or Asian kids…"

"It wasn't always obvious but it was there," Jubilee said. "The looks we get when we go into a store sometimes. Or certain kids in the halls. And when we got outed it was worse."

"In my case it was like being black with a little black added," Jesse told them.

"Look as much as I'd love to get into an argument about the treatment of persons of color in society as well as how it pertains to mutants…" Hank yawned. "Can we resume this at another time when we're all not dead tired and likely to blow each other's heads off?"

"Why because we're winning?" Jesse asked.

Abrams walked in. "Well he got away," Abrams said in a snippy tone. "Now we're all gonna have a nice long talk about exactly how long he was here and who saw what. And I want the truth this time even if it takes all night!"

"We're never gonna get any sleep tonight…" Kitty moaned.

Next: What is it with Thornn and Evan? Find out in the next exciting chapter as things take another twist (like there haven't been enough of them already!)