Author's Note: Bloody cows. They're just taking up all the attention, aren't they? Well, let's put some focus back on the actual characters, shall we? And don't worry, feeding the cows IS significant. Even though it may not seem like it.

I awoke to the sun streaming in on my face. I blinked, confused. I hadn't slept in a position in which the sun could get to me through any of the windows.

"Rise and shine, kiddies!"

Kiddies!

"Brand..." I groaned. "Get out! Go back to your own car."

"Brand?" asked the voice, startled. "You mean, there's a more of ya?"

I guess I should have been suspicious that something was going on by now. For one thing, Brand didn't have a Southern accent. But I was still groggy and waking up, so I said, "Mm-hmm, did someone leave?"

"Luna, wake up, you idiot!" came Mouth's voice. I looked up and faced the sun. I couldn't see anything for a moment. But when my eyes adjusted, I found that I was staring out the door of the boxcar at a young man in his twenties, with muscular arms and a rather stupid-looking goatee. He was wearing a plaid shirt and pinstriped boxers. He would have been rather attractive if it wasn't for the goatee and his eyes, which were dull and watery and made him look kind of clueless.

And he had Mouth in a headlock.

"What is going ON?" I said, sitting up and hitting my head on a windowsill. "Ow!"

Mystery Man laughed. "Haha, girly. What are you doin' on ma train?"

"Erm..." I couldn't think fast enough, my brain was frozen.

"Yer on the run, aren't ya?" asked Mystery Man. "From the law, aren't ya? Aren't ya?"

Before I could say anything at all, he just chuckled deeply. "I won't tell anyone, no sir-ee, Bob."

"Her name is Luna," said Mouth angrily. "The only person who can call her anything other than that is me. And you got a banjo with that accent?"

"Ya'll got some spunk. Tellin' me off like you do. I oughta throw you in with the cows."

I was struck. "The cows..."

Mystery Man nodded. "Darn tootin'. I noticed sum'n was wrong...I saw a cow up the tracks 'bout 10 miles or so, got out, saw that one of the boxcar doors was open, so I concluded that maybe sum'n might be on the train."

I left the door open. I should have closed it. Not like that would have done anything, but maybe he would have thought it was a coincidence, you know? No, probably not.

He seemed to remember he had Mouth in a headlock, and released him suddenly. "So you whelps are runnin' from the law, eh? Whatcha do? Steal somethin'? Vandalism?" He got in real close to my face. "Kill sum'n?"

"Um...sure," I said. "We, uh, defaced some property..."

"Oh really?" Mystery Man leaned in close again. "What'd you deface?"

"A..." I thought for a moment, the looked at Mouth.

"We defaced a restaurant," he said, proudly, without stumbling. "Spray-painted the windows black, crammed bubble gum in the keyhole of the doorknob so they couldn't get in, and paintballed the outside walls. That was, after we stole all of the ice cream and cake in the refrigerator."

Good one, Mouth. It was surprisingly believable, partly just because of the way he said it.

"Naughty young'ns..." drawled Mystery Man. "Now, uh, what did you say your name was? Luna, was it?"

I shook my head. "No, that's just my nickname. My real name is Colleen." God I hated that name. Why did that have to be the first thing to come into my head? If I was to have a fake identity I would at least have liked my name to be something cool. Something foreign-sounding. Leilani, maybe. Or Liesel.

Mouth glared at me, apparently he didn't like it either.

"I'm Grover," said Mystery Man/Grover. It was fitting, really. I don't know why. He just looked so unintelligent and mismatched, the name seemed to fit well.

"Anyway," Grover continued. "Did you say there were more of you?"

I shook my head. "No more, just us."

"Come on, I heard you say somethin' about Brand. Who's this Brand? Is he behind one of these haystacks here? I bet he is..." Grover climbed into the boxcar and peeked behind one of the piles of haybales. "Aha!" He dragged Data out by his trenchcoat. "I found you, Brand!"

"I am not Brand!" Data said indignantly. "I am Data!"

Well, I guess it was ok for the Goonies themselves to go by their nicknames. They couldn't be used. They didn't mean anything to the police. I would think.

"There's even more?" Grover asked, dropping Data and looking shocked. "How many young'ns do you have in my train, missy?"

"There are seven of us, mister, and we're going to tie you up and take control of this train if you don't get us to Jajowe right...NOW!" Mikey said, jumping out from behind another stack.

"Yeah, thanks, Mikey," Mouth mumbled.

"Mikey, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked him. Before he could answer I ran around the hay bale and whispered in his ear, "Your name is Benjamin." I didn't explain, I hoped I didn't need to.

I raced back out front. "I guess you can all come out now, then. Chunk? i Benjamin /i ?" I put particular stress on the second name. I hoped Mikey was smarter than Mouth or Chunk.

Grover looked confused. "But where are the other two?"

"They're in the other car," I said. "I'll get them." And before he could protest, I flung open the door and ran into Brand and Andy's boxcar. "Guys, we've been caught."

"Caught?" Brand jolted upright. "By the police?"

"No, by the train conductor. He thinks we're on the run from the law. He isn't telling anyone. Call everyone by their nicknames. My name is Colleen, and Mikey's is Benjamin."

"Can Brand and I be married?" Andy asked, looking excited.

"Um, er, um, SURE!" I burst out. "I don't care, just pick out first names, that's all that's important."

"Joshua."

"Cleopatra."

"Andy! Cleopatra? That's not believable! Come on, um..." I thought for a moment. "How about Jennifer?"

"It's ok."

"Andy this is not the time to be picky, your name is Jennifer! Now come on out before he gets suspicious!"

I let them out, apologizing for taking so long. "I had to wake them up, you see."

"I'm Jennifer, and this is my husband Joshua."

Grover squinted. "Er...right. Look, I'm behind schedule and missing four cows. I'll give ya'll a lift to Jajowe, but that's it, ok? Then yer on yer own."

"Thank you so much, mister," Mikey said. "That's all we need, believe me."

Grover's eyes widened a bit, then went back to their normal, watery selves. "Just out of curiosity, why're you folks headed to Jajowe?"

"We never said we were going to Jajowe, we said we were happy you were giving us a ride there," said Brand coldly.

"Oh, sorry, just...a little paranoid, I reckon," said Grover, wiping his brow, though the air was rather cold. "See, I'm looking for someone, and I just thought..." he paused.

"Who are you looking for?" Chunk asked. "My grandparents live in Jajowe, maybe I can help you, I know lots of the townsfolk."

"I don't guess you know of Daniel Bradford, then?"

I gasped, as did Andy, Brand, and Mikey.

Grover noticed. "Aw, no, you don't know him," he said quickly. "He ain't around these parts no more, I'm just...looking up on his family, you know? You didn't hear anything." He said this last sentence without the Southern accent. Looking a bit shocked, he shut the door of the boxcar and walked back down to the engine. But not before turning around and shouting again with the accent this time, "Ya'll didn't hear nothin,' ya hear?"

"Was he drunk?" Mikey asked.

Brand laughed uneasily. "I don't know, maybe. Let's hope not, he's driving our train."

We started moving again, and the younger boys started dancing about, Andy joining them in the middle. They were singing a song that was comprised mostly of the words "On the road again, we're on the road again, we're going to..." and then they all shouted, "Jajowe!"

I sat down on the ground and looked at Brand. He looked back and I could see worry in his eyes. He was thinking the same thing that I was, I suppose. Did we have some competition? Was this guy going to be a danger to our adventure? Were we safe with him?

I really had no choice to be satisfied with the good luck we'd had so far and see what happens. I just couldn't shake the feeling that this guy would spell bad news for us later.