They moved at night, laying low during the day, always careful to stay beneath the trees. The fear of an aerial assault always there.
Jean Grey had tended his wounds as best she could: Psychokinetically removing the bullet and then physically sewing him up. It wasn't a bad job, under the circumstances. He'd had much worse. Done much worse, to himself.
He was still hanging back from the crowd, but they were now trying to include him. They kept asking him to join them when they ate. The Blonde, Tabitha, kept walking with him every night.
He did his best to ignore her, but even he had his moments of weakness, where he just couldn't' remember why he was trying so hard to be distant from them. 'What would it hurt?' a little voice asked him. He might almost have taken it to belong to one of the telepaths in the group, but it was too familiar. A voice droning on him his whole life.
"Have you ever had a girlfriend?"
"What?" Toad was shocked back to his surroundings by the piercing, uninterruptible voice of Tabitha Smith.
"I asked if you'd ever had a girlfriend. Are you hard of hearing or something?"
"No."
"No, you aren't hard of hearing or no you've never had a-"
"Pick one."
"Ah, I just wondered."
"Wondered what? What is was like growing up looking like this?" Toad couldn't help sounding bitter. Here he was actually considering giving these blokes a chance and then she sticks her nose into his business, dredging up old disappointments and hurts.
"No, I just wondered if there was a physiological reason why you walk around acting like you have your own personal rain cloud shoved up your ass."
Toad blinked.
Tabitha continued, nonplussed.
"But it makes sense, if you've never been laid."
Toad blinked again.
"I mean, hell, even visor-boy has the illustrious Doctor to soothe his woes. I don't even want to think about what a tight-ass he'd be without getting his nookie."
Toad actually stopped and stared at her. .
"You just don't have boundaries, do you?"
Tabitha looked confused for a second and then shrugged with a smile.
"What can I say, I like to talk."
Toad shook his head and started walking again, wishing for once that Storm would come up and intervene. Although he realized he wouldn't mind seeing the look on 'visor-boy's' face if he heard Tabitha talking about his 'nookie'.
Tabitha finally seemed to get that he wanted to be left alone and she sauntered off to flirt with some of the other guys her age. Alone he could appreciate the walk. Starry night, away from the city smog. Slight breeze running through the trees, the sound of crickets and other wildlife.
In any other circumstance he might be enjoying himself. He hadn't been yelled at once, unless you counted Storm's depraved ravings, which he chose to pointedly ignore. He even enjoyed being relaxed and comfortable around 'his own kind'. They might not be the company he'd choose under the best of times, but they were alike in some inseparable ways. And he didn't, for once, have to hide what he was.
But his mind kept wandering back to the danger they were in. The horror they were facing. Toad lived his whole life running from one horror to the next, but this time, he didn't know where to run. They were heading toward Canada now, but they had no real way of knowing how the Canadian authorities would receive them.
He missed Magneto's island, where the mutant made his own laws. He missed feeling like he had a purpose. Now he was just running. He could content himself with the idea he was acting as bodyguard to the others, but the truth was, he didn't have anywhere else to go.
They reached a dense place in the forest again. It was time to stop for the day; the sun would be breaking soon. Toad sat beside the Scottish werewolf-girl and reached for a protein bar. Not much flavor, but he'd had worse. Raw pigeons, for one thing. He could eat those if he had to, or at least catch them for the others, but if they didn't have to resort to that they were better off. Pigeons were disease-ridden birds, and all they needed was the children falling sick to some form of food-poisoning.
The girl looked at him. He usually stayed away from the group, but he was feeling bolder. She looked frightened. He smiled at her, and offered her a bar. She blinked at him and took it before running toward Rogue when she was called. He peered after her.
He was even scary to that little girl. He wondered if his reputation had preceded him, or if he was really that ugly. Watching Rogue with her he realized it was probably the reputation. 'Not that you aren't that ugly,' he reminded himself. He plucked a blade of grass and began rolling it between his fingers, lost in thought.
"Hey kid, you got a minute?"
Toad looked up at Wolverine standing a few feet away with Cyclops and Storm. He got up and shambled toward them, keeping a wary eye on Storm, but she look disinterested.
"What's up?"
"We've been watching the news and it looks like the sentinels will be starting sweeps up this way starting tomorrow," Cyclops told the news grimly, "We thought we should start to prepare."
Toad chuckled.
"Prepare to be slaughtered, you mean?"
"I think we could stand a fighting chance if we could work as a team…we could at least protect some of the children."
Toad shook his head, "Oh don't worry boss, I'm in for the count, just don't' think we'll stand much of a chance is all."
Wolverine looked like he agreed, and even Storm nodded her head. Cyclops looked defeated.
"Well what are our alternatives? I'd love to hear them, I really would," he meant it; he was to the point of desperation.
Toad sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Now it didn't seem so funny. What were the alternatives?
"Well, standing around chattin won't get us to the border any more quickly," Wolverine looked grim, "told ya coddlin those kids wasn't gonna do 'em any good."
"I'm not sure now is the best time to place blame."
"Not if it's directed at you, right Scotty-boy?"
"Logan," snapped Storm, "The important thing right now is the safety of the children."
"Maybe we shouldn't be running?" Toad's voice was quiet, but Wolverine stopped arguing.
"I'm listening runt."
"You ever think the best way to avoid being taken, is to take them first? What about going to where they manufacture these things and taking 'em out? I mean, some of these kids are pretty powerful, and I sure as Hell like the element of surprise better when it's on my side."
"You're suggesting we operate not only outside the law but against the law, and we use the children to do it?" Cyclops looked aghast.
Toad shrugged, "Not pretty an clean like you X-Men like to do it," he sneered as he said X-Men, suddenly sounding like the other side again, "but then again, neither is getting slaughtered off or locked up in camps."
"You were just complaining that the group of use couldn't take a few Sentinels and now you want us to attack the whole factory?"
"Not alone, we couldn't take them, no."
"You are suggesting we enlist the help of your former Master," Storm spoke up, putting a very derogatory inflection on the word 'master'.
"Yeah, I'm suggesting we give ole' Maggie a call, unless you bunch can think of something better?"