ARGH! My computer's being stupid. It's been down FOR-E-VER! I'm sorry this story is taking so long ;;;

"She really didn't seem to like you,"

"I can deal. No one ever does,"

"I think she wants you outta here."

"And dead. Don't forget dead."

"Yo, 'Shine! This is serious!" Toad yelled to the carefree Sunshine, who was lazily stretched out on the now somewhat leveled couch while he sat on the floor.

"I'm not afraid of her! If she wants a battle to the death with me, I'm not taking a dive!"

"Maybe we can find you a little abandoned house and you can lay low—"

"No! I want to stay here. Don't you want me here?"

"Of course I do 'Shine, but I don't wanna see you get hurt or nothin'…"

The rodent girl sighed and reached out to hug Todd, falling off the sofa in the process and landing in his lap. "I can take her," was her muffled reply, "She's not so scary……" she yawned and buried her head into his sweater, drifting off to sleep.

Toad slumped his shoulders and patted her head, trying not to think about what Mystique might do to her.

It was not even five minutes later Lance came stomping into the living room, setting a death glare on the sleeping form.

"RAT!!!" the no longer sleeping form jolted awake from the sudden screech, accidentally hitting her head on Toad's chin, causing him to bite his tongue. "Ow!" the two said in unison, looking over at a very bloody and very pissed off Lance.

The whole house was shaking, furniture bouncing out of place and plaster falling from the ceiling as he marched over to the girl, who shrank back in fear, wondering if she should make a run for it.

She made a break for the door, but unfortunately didn't make it as the earthquake-maker grabbed her by the collar of her sweater, choking her and slamming her up against the wall. "That overgrown housecat is on his way here and he is intent on killing you!"

Sunshine was very confused as she stared at the boy, but glanced over at Todd and saw that he as white as she was, standing up and forcing his wobbly legs to run to her side, shoving Lance off the poor girl.

The ground started to rumble again as the supposed 'leader' of the Brotherhood grabbed the amphibious boy and literally threw him across the room, creating yet another dent in the already badly damaged wall. He turned his attention back to the quavering rodent teen. "That creep attacked me and said Mystique told him to kill you. I shouldn't have let you stay here!" He looked over his shoulder, "Why did you have to bring her here Toad huh?!"

"I-I-I couldn't 'ave j-just left her there—"

"That's not a good enough answer!" Lance slung Sunshine over his shoulder and walked outside, where it had began to snow quite heavily. He set her down and calmly told her, "You can fight, or you can hide, but you can't do it here. I want you to stay away from here got it?

You're a good kid, but you don't belong here. Mystique wants you dead, and Creed's the one to do the job. You stay here and you're cat food you hear me? So get lost!" he turned on his heel and headed inside. "Come on Toad,"

"Screw you!" Alvers whipped back around, staring at the green mutant with such surprise he didn't realize he was practically gawking at him. "What did you say?" "You heard me!" Tolansky shouted maliciously, pulling Sunshine close to him, though she was currently rather zoned out; probably in deep thought.

"She's not fighting alone! Sunshine's the only person in the world who seems to give a damn about me, and I'm not gonna just stand here while you throw her in the frikken streets! So you can just kiss my green ass, yo!!"

He threw his house key at Alvers and stormed down the street with his arm wrapped around Sunshine's shoulders. The young girl finally found her voice after they were about several blocks away. "Wha…why d-d-di…." Her lips were numb and her tongue heavy as she tried to form the words.

"Why did I do that just now?" he finished for her. She nodded absently. "'Cause I care about you, yo. You accept me for who I am, and I accept you for who you are. You don't just hear what I have to say; you listen to what I have to say."

He chuckled softly at his own words, "You also seem to care about what I say. You and me, we're a good team. Hand-in-Hand, Back to Back, Double Trouble, Daunting Duo, Tag Team you could call us. We go well together. We're the outcasts.

Together we are strong, we are noble, we are—"

"…family…"

He looked down and stared into those teary gray eyes of hers, and Todd knew just how deeply that single word meant to the two of them. It touched him, deeply, for her to consider him as family, so much so that his eyes started to well up with tears.

They both choked back a sob as they tried to smile at one another and let a few tears slip down their frozen cheeks. Noticing they had stopped, they started down the sidewalk again, the harsh wind to their backs.

It started to snow even harder and the wind more fierce; so loud it prevented them from hearing, and seeing, anything around them, and they had to hold hands so they wouldn't lose one another.

He watched his prey from atop a nearby building, a feral growl emitting from his throat. Although he could not see her very well through the storm, he could certainly smell her. He sniffed the piece of clothing, a bit of her jeans, that Mystique had given him after showing him to huge sum of money that she would reward him with upon Sunshine's death.

"The is gonna be easy," he assured himself as he leapt off the building, that sweet taste of a girls' blood already on his tongue.

I never saw enough episodes with Creed in them, so I'm not sure if he is OOC or not. Again I apologize for making you guys wait so long for this freakin' story to be over and done with!