Take the Long Way Home
Here's the sixth chapter! And for those of you wondering about the little sob fest Maria indulged in… Maria busts in howling for blood. "WHERE IS HE?!!!" Gulp. I run and hide behind Shawn.
Hide me. Shawn glances at said bloodthirsty amazon and looks at me like I've grown an extra head.
"Are you insane?!?! I'm heading out right now." He takes a flying leap into my computer.
Coward! Maria unfortunately hears me and comes gunning for me. Wait a cotton-picking minute; I'm an all powerful author! I snap my fingers and she's sucked into the fic. Now before we were so rudely interrupted, wouldn't you start crying if you were going back to the sort of place she had escaped from? I'm pretty sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. had plans for her, and they probably involved labs.
Also, since no one appears to want to vote on who Shawn's roomie should be, I've decided who he'll be rooming with on my own. Poor, poor Sam.
Disclaimer: No own, so no sue. Except for Shawn and any thing relating to him that isn't based on something else. P.S: If that last part confused you, don't worry it confused me too.
"AAA"-talking
'AAA'-thought
AAA-telepathy
AAA-self debate???
Chapter 6- Bad Boom-Boom, Bad!
It had been two weeks since Fury had left and they had finally gotten word back from him in the form of a letter. Beast's idea had met general approval from his superiors. Maria would be under watch from a distance; if she got out of line in any way that would cause harm to the general public she would be taken into custody and transported to the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
In the meantime, Shawn had formed a budding friendship with Bobby and Jamie. This had begun a few days after the 'Fury incident', when they had both set out to prank Scott at the same time without knowing it. It went down like this.
Bobby had asked Jamie to keep watch while he doctored Scott's shampoo. After Bobby had left to fetch his supplies, Shawn had shown up.
"Yo, J-man! Listen, I kinda need a favor. Could you keep watch for me while I mess with Mr. Up-tight's toothpaste?" Shawn had come up with nicknames for most of the occupants of the Institute, excepting the professor, Beast and Storm, almost as soon as he had observed their personalities, or simply heard their real names.
Jamie, never one to pass up the opportunity for mass chaos, had agreed almost instantly. Shawn went in, a small bottle in one hand. As Shawn had left, Bobby had passed by, a bottle of hair dye in hand. The two pranksters had nodded at each other, and that was that. Until the next morning that is.
It was Saturday, and Shawn usually slept in on Saturdays; but since he hadn't wanted to miss his handiwork, he was up earlier than usual (Read: before two). Everyone except for Scott was downstairs when he made his appearance, followed by his usual morning ritual. Maria was poking at her eggs at the far end of the table, while everyone chatted around her. She had seemed to settle into a sullen, sulking mood after the incident with Fury.
There was some good news however. Wolverine had talked with her, and whatever problems that the two had had seemed to be reconciled. And she wasn't being shunned by the others either. Kitty had attempted to get her opinion on fashion, once or twice but had left the ex-spy alone when she didn't respond.
Shawn grabbed a plate and dug in. Storm and Jean were doing the cooking. When the enraged howl of "BOBBY!!!!" rang out, he sniggered and continued eating. An apoplectic Scott came barreling in, headed straight for the Iceman. Quick reflexes were the only thing that kept said prankster from immediate strangulation.
Everyone, excepting Logan and Shawn, had stopped eating to see what the commotion was about. Maria had stopped staring at her plate and was instead staring at Scott's head, along with everyone else. His hair was a brilliant tropical green. He opened his mouth to yell again, when Jean gasped, "Scott, what happened to your teeth?!"
Scott stopped advancing on Bobby, who was currently hiding behind Jubilee's chair and turned to look at her. "My teeth?"
"They're blue One-eye," Wolverine said as he helped himself to another piece of bacon. Scott ran his tongue over his teeth; the tip was a dark blue, while the teeth themselves were a lighter shade. All eyes turned to lock onto Bobby. He held up his hands and shook his head.
"I only messed with the shampoo; I didn't do anything to the dental care stuff." At this point Jamie and Shawn lost it. Shawn started chuckling, while Jamie had a giggle attack. The room's occupants regarded them with suspicion.
"Which one of you did it?" the professor asked. Shawn's chuckles had progressed to all out laughs. All he could do was raise a hand weakly, practically in stitches. "Very well then. The three of you are confined to the Institute for a week. Jamie, I'm including you because you obviously helped carry this out in some way." Jamie looked like his dog had just died. "Bobby, after school, you will report directly to the Institute," he paused, "I'm also putting all three of you on Danger Room cleanup duty for the week." This stopped any and all laughter from the guilty parties.
After Jamie had stopped blaming the two older boys for getting him into trouble, (which had taken the combined efforts of a rare card from Shawn's Yu-Gi-Oh deck [A first edition 'Barrel Dragon'] and some rides on Bobby's ice sled), they had found that they all had a natural talent for pranks. So what did they do? Put their heads together and whip up some pranks that they couldn't possibly pull off on their own. They now had some fairly ingenious plans cooking, but they all needed a bit of fine tuning before being put into action.
In the meantime Shawn's training was going fairly smoothly, he could now sprout wings and/or a tail if he concentrated hard enough. Keeping them there was going to take a lot more work. Both he and Maria had received codenames as well. Hers was 'Wildcat', Shawn had suggested it (Surprise, Surprise), and his was 'Draco' (Ten points if you can guess why).
While the training was going on, Beast had been conducting a series of tests on the blood and scale samples that he had obtained from Shawn. The results were extremely interesting, to put it mildly. His blood was fairly normal, with the exception of a chemical that was also present in both Amara and Roberto's blood, except in them it was at far greater levels. This chemical was what kept them from frying alive when ever they used their powers, or in Amara's case what just kept her from frying. In essence, Shawn was partially fire-proof. The scales had the consistency of Kevlar, and appeared to be almost as tough. If they grew any thicker, Shawn would have an organic suit of armor that would be fairly impressive, though not on the same level as Colossus' or the Juggernaut's. The most astounding finding however was this: from Beast's analysis, Shawn was only partially tapping into his mutation! This had shocked even Shawn himself; he had believed that going partially reptilian and spitting up the odd ball of flames was as far as his mutation went. Now he trained to not only master that part of his mutation that he could tap into, but to unlock the rest of his powers as well.
On the Wednesday of the three prisoner's incarceration, Shawn's belongings had arrived. The game systems had been an immediate hit with everyone; unfortunately, the three were not allowed to play them as part of their punishment. Also, Sam had been a little peeved to find that part of the room that he and Shawn shared had been turned into a music stand, with a keyboard/synthesizer and an old fashioned reed flute, but after being promised unlimited use of the keyboard as long as he didn't break it, had gotten over it fairly fast.
Sunday had finally come however, and the three of them were off the hook. They had immediately laid claim to the Gamecube after breakfast; and were currently engaged in a vicious three way battle between Link, Bowser, and Pikachu. That was when the valley girl, the klepto, and ex-spy had shown up. Maria was arguing loudly with her roommate. "I'm not going shopping, and that's final!"
Kitty was apparently the head of the 'get the ex-spy new clothes' delegation, as she simply rolled her eyes and kept up the argument. "But, like, you need some new clothes! No offense, but that outfit is like, totally ratty." Maria gave an exasperated sigh; this had been going on for the past week and a half. Threats hadn't worked, neither had ignoring them; apparently her roommates were extremely determined. 'Maybe they're right. It couldn't hurt anything to have new clothes for once, could it?'
"Fine, but only one or two outfits, I don't really need two closets worth of clothes." And that was how she found herself in a trendy clothing store in the mall with twenty different outfits picked out. After they had gotten there, she had found herself more and more interested in the process of picking out and trying on the different clothes. When they finally got to the register, she had a total of ten different pairs of shoes, seven blouses, twelve t-shirts, six pairs of slacks, eight pairs of jeans, and two pairs of pajamas.
"Oh man, we don't have enough money!" Kitty moaned as she searched through her purse. Tabitha gave a wicked little grin.
"Oh, yes we do." So saying, she produced a leather wallet with the words "$Pay up Punk$" worked into it.
Kitty's eyes got really big, but before she could protest, Boom-Boom lifted a hand. "Relax, it's from the institute. I 'borrowed' it from her boyfriend." As she said this she jerked a thumb at Maria, who was getting a little red. "So, let's go back and grab some accessories too."
Kitty thought it over. "As long as we pay him back, I guess it's alright… hey! Wait up!" As soon as she had reached her decision the other two had taken off, Tabitha dragging Maria behind her, the latter protesting at being called Shawn's girlfriend.
--- Back at the Institute---
Shawn had just finished showing the guys the power of the pika, and was thinking about heading out to say "hey" to Lance, and see if he could get the details for the card game together, as well as cruise that one arcade that had caught his attention, the 'Impact Zone'. It looked cool, with several fairly hard to find shoot-em-up arcade games visible in the window. He just had to find his @*($#&* wallet!
"Hey Berto," He hailed the Brazilian as he passed, "you see a leather wallet that has '$Pay up Punk$' worked into it? Cause I can't find it."
Roberto stopped and thought for a moment, mumbling to himself. "Hmm; maybe…, no that was a pleather wallet of Jamie's. Oh yeah!" He snapped his fingers. "I saw Boom-Boom stick it into her pocket when she left with Kitty and Maria."
Shawn went pale as he thought of his cash in the hands of three spend-happy females; especially when one was a wardrobe challenged ex-spy. I think your cash supply is sinking faster than the Titanic chuckled his mental companion. Shut up already Shawn shot back. Fine, be that way his inner dragon sniffed, and then withdrew to 'his' corner of their shared mind. Shawn grabbed Roberto by the arm. "Which way's the mall?!"
Roberto thought for a minute before giving his reply. "Other side of town; can't miss it." He had barely finished before Shawn was gone, a faint "Thanks" lingering in the wind his departure had kicked up.
---Ten Minutes Later---
Shawn was racing through an alley, hoping and praying that they hadn't found the two hundred he had stashed in the hidden little pocket in his wallet. That's when the familiar sound of a fist striking flesh met his ears. He turned a corner to find several specimens of Jockus Meatheadius; subspecies: Idiotus Compleatus surrounding a familiar looking amphibian.
Two of them had Toad's arms forced behind his back while the apparent leader was about to deliver a punch that probably would have burst one of the poor guy's kidneys. The rest were hooting encouragements along the lines of "That's it Duncan!" and "Pound his mutie a** into the freaking ground!" Some of them appeared to either be drunk or fairly well on the way there. Shawn's blood started to boil. There were only a few things that could make him think about disemboweling someone, but bullying was number two on the list. 'Time for a lesson in manners.'
"Let him go, ya bunch a jackasses!!" Duncan turned to regard the intrusion on his 'fun' with a glare of annoyance.
"He's a f***in mutie! He deserves this!" Duncan responded, his legendary flash fire temper sparking.
"For what? Existing? Than I guess that you guys must be some pretty big heroes, beating on an unconscious mutie." The unknown kid began to clap derisively, a sneer of contempt pasted on his face.
One of the drunker members of Duncan's crew, a linebacker on the team called "The Tank", got up and headed towards the boy, fists balled and ready to smash something. "Shut up, you little mutie lover!" He swung with a devastating punch that most of the football team had seen drop a guy twice his size, even when he was drunk. The kid ducked under his swing and planted one right across his chops. "The Tank" dropped like a ton of bricks.
At this point, Toad became secondary to this new freak. The guys holding him dropped and left him, getting into position beside the rest of the more sober members of the gang. Duncan gave a malicious chuckle as he surveyed the odds. Twelve to one; even a good fighter would go down under those odds. He balled his fists and charged at the boy, yelling "Get him!" as he went. The rest of the gang gladly obeyed.
Shawn surveyed the wall of pissed off jocks coming at him and sighed. Any requests? asked his mental sidekick. Shawn thought for a millisecond. "Another One Bites the Dust" please As he dodged the first fist, the beginning chords of the classic song sounded in the back of his mind.
---Back at the Mall---
The three shoppers had exhausted their filched funds, except for a twenty that they had decided to save so they could truthfully say that they hadn't spent all of the money. All in all, they had spent most of the seventy dollars that they had found in the wallet. They were currently lounging at the food court, talking and sucking on slushees. Maria was getting a little hyper from her first taste of highly concentrated sugar.
"Like, what do you think of Shawn, Maria?" The ex-spy was caught off guard by the question, having been debating on whether she should get another one of those Mountain Dew slushies. (Sugar and caffeine plus someone not used to guzzling mass amounts of either. Can you say sugar rush of the century? Aieesh!) Kitty had an innocent look on her face, despite the personal nature of the question.
Maria looked puzzled for a moment before responding. "He's nice I guess and a brilliant fighter anyway you look at it." She looked wistfully back at the Slushee stand. "Do we have to give him a twenty back? Couldn't it be a ten instead?"
Tabitha laughed aloud at the look on Kitty's face, then turned to Maria, who was shaking her cup around to make sure that she hadn't missed a drop of the precious sugar rich fluid. "What Kitty's trying to ask in a round about way is; do you like Shawn as in like him, like him?"
Maria looked at her companions for a moment before it clicked. Then she went so red it looked like she was about to burst into flames. "Of-of course not! Just because he's a good fighter, beat me, andhehasacutebutt doesn't mean that I automatically feel an attraction for him."
"Hold on, did you just say he had a cute butt?" Tabitha asked.
Kitty gave a short squeal, "I knew it!" Then she paused for a moment. "His butt's not as cute as Lance's." After she said this she began to pout a little.
"Still regretting what you said?" Boom-boom asked. Kitty nodded. "Why not apologize? I'm sure he misses you as much as you miss him." Tabitha knew she was slipping into big sister mode, but didn't care.
"Who are you talking about?" Kitty jerked in surprise. They had forgotten that Maria was there! "Boy trouble." Tabitha said, as if it explained everything. Maria gave a nod, then returned to looking wistfully at the Slushee stand.
---Back at the Alley---
Shawn surveyed the wreckage. Three of the jocks were still standing; the rest had decided it was nap time. Toad had woken up near the end and had bowled over his two former jailers, knocking them out on the ground. He was now huddled up behind Shawn, nursing his wounds. The three remaining goons, Duncan and his two lieutenants, had stayed at the back of the pack, waiting for the kid to tire out so they could move in and claim the win, their usual plan. This time however, the plan hadn't worked. This guy was barely sweating!
"What the hell are you?" asked Duncan's second in command, a fast talker named Frank. The kid ignored him.
"He asked you a question you little mother f***er!" Duncan snapped.
That got his attention. Shawn's eyes flashed as he stared at Duncan. That was numero uno on Shawn's disembowelment list, the big red button that said "Do not press this; and if you do; may God have mercy on your soul." "No one, and I mean no one says anything bout my momma!!!!" So saying; he rushed the trio. He gave a hard left to Frank and a swift spinning kick to the solar plexus of the other guy. Finally he rounded on Duncan, who was looking for an escape route. No way out. "Never. Ever. Say. Anything. About. My. Mother!" Shawn punctuated each word with a jab to the stomach. On the word 'mother', he leaned back and brought an uppercut almost straight up from the ground to smash into Duncan's cleft chin. The jock went down like a pole-axed bull.
Shawn gave a satisfied snort, and turned to help Toad to his feet. "You okay?"
Toad shook his head a moment, and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay yo." He turned around and began to hop away. He got two hops away before collapsing in pain. Shawn shook his head in pity.
"C'mon, I'll give you a lift to the boarding house." So saying, Shawn closed his eyes, concentrated, and proceded to sprout both wings and tail. After some experimentation he had found that the tail was necessary for flight. Without it, he couldn't maintain his balance in the air.
Toad looked on, a small worried frown on his face. "So what ya gonna do? Stick me on your back and fly me there yo?'
Shawn grinned. "That's the plan." He used his tail to pick the smaller boy up and deposit him on his back, right between his wings. He had also learned that his tail was completely prehensile. Toad had no choice but to wrap his arms around the larger boy's neck as they took off.
Three minutes later they landed at the Hood's boarding house. Wanda had watched them land from the doorway, a sandwich in one hand. "What do you want X-man?" she spat.
"Good to see you again too. I'm just providing a taxi service for your boyfriend." He jerked a thumb at his passenger, who appeared to be in a state of shock.
Wanda took a closer look at the comatose amphibian. "Is he alright?" she asked, a faint tinge of worry coming into her voice.
Shawn pried at the arms that had locked around his neck. "C'mon man, we've landed. You know, Terra Firma? The stuff that shakes when Lance gets pissed?" Toad's response sounded suspiciously like "mimble wimble". The draconic figure attempted to remove his passenger once more; no good. Shawn shot a pleading look at the Scarlet Witch, who had collapsed in a fit of laughter. She finally shook off the last of her mirth and used her powers to lever the petrified Todd off of a very grateful lizard's back.
Shawn then dragged the guy into the house, dropped him onto the sofa, and went into the kitchen. Wanda just looked on. As soon as the sound of running water reached her ears, she walked forward, a look of actual concern on her face. She stopped and looked down at Todd. He was still out cold. A small smile crossed her face. 'He looks kind of sweet when he's asleep. If he bathed more and stopped calling me those ridiculous names, I might be able to like him a little.' She heard the water being turned off, the pipes rattling in protest. She quickly returned to her previous spot, adopting a look of boredom.
Shawn strolled out of the kitchen, having found a relatively clean glass in the toxic waste dump that the Brotherhood called a kitchen. He rubbed one of his sore shoulders with his free hand, rotating it. 'If I want to be able to carry a passenger, I'm going to have to work out more.' Thinking of taking Maria on a little 'midnight flight'? Shut up, I'm still not talking to you Is it my fault that Scott can't take a joke? Besides, you're the one who actually put the food coloring in the toothpaste. I just suggested it Still makes you guilty by association Damn lawyer jargon. I thought you stopped reading Grisham novels And you stopped being a pain in the- I'll ignore that
Shawn walked up to the couch, and casually dumped the glass of cold water over the other boy's head. Todd came up spluttering. "Who; what; when; were; why; how? How'd I get back to the house?" He looked around in confusion. He spotted Wanda. "Maybe I died and went to heaven." Then he wrinkled his nose as a certain, shall we say fragrance, made itself known. "Guess not, unless the septic tank under the pearly gates is backed up."
Shawn turned to leave, tossing this phrase over his shoulder as he went. "I'll come back later. I need to talk to Lance, and I wanna find out what you were fighting those goons about. But in the meantime; I gotta see a couple of girls about a wallet."
---To be continued---
For all you Toad haters out there, if you don't like it tough cookies. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, so I'm gonna probably end up hooking him and Wanda up. *Toad's jumping for joy in the background while Wanda fires up a nice sized hex bolt to send cross my hiney.* After I make a couple of suggestions to the Toad man. Like it? Hate it? Either way, Review it!