Take the Long Way Home
7th chapter! Wow, I never thought that this fic would ever even get this far! My sincerest thanks to all of you who chose to review. If not for you guys, I probably would have given up after the third chapter. So a heartfelt thanks to any and all reviewers. And special thanks to Legendary Warrior; Caliente; D-Ark of Spirit; Animeluvr1 and Flame for your suggestions and comments. Thanks again guys!
Also I've made the decision to insert an extra year until the 3rd door is opened and Apocalypse is released. I'm gonna see what I can squeeze out in the way of chapters before I bring in the ancient evil dude.
"AAA"-talking
'AAA'-thought
AAA-telepathy
AAA-self debate or conversation with "feral side" in Shawn and Rahne's case.
Disclaimer: let's see how my new anti-lawyer spray works. I do own X-men evolution. *a dust cloud formed by a horde of charging lawyers forms in the distance* Apparently it doesn't. I take it back; I don't own X-men evolution. *the dust cloud dies down as the lawyers turn and dejectedly return to their dank and slimy lairs* I'm gonna kill that salesman.
Chapter 7-Explanations and Arrangements
---The Brotherhood Boarding house---
Shawn strolled up to the door and knocked, humming a happy tune in his head. He had caught up with the girls outside the mall and had immediately demanded his wallet back. It had taken several threats and a few of his patented death glares, but he had gotten it back without getting blown up and/or castrated. He had promised not to tell the professor, so long as they paid him back in full. As soon as they were out of sight he had checked the pocket worked into the lining of the wallet and had been relieved to find the four fifties he had put in there when he had left the dojo still intact. Now he was back at the boarding house to find out the story behind his little tussle in the alley earlier.
His musings were interrupted by an annoyed voice in his head. You do know how annoying that humming is, don't you? Of course, I do it solely to annoy you I hate you sometimes kid Oh, bite me already Would if I could, but that would give me one huge headache We share pain? No; it would be from listening to you whine about how your head hurt Ha-ha, very funny I know
Lance opened the door to a chuckling Shawn. "Hey man; what brings you to the pits?" He opened the door wider and motioned the other boy inside.
"Trying to get that poker game together; I found a third player. Plus I wanted to find out what the heck those goons did that had Todd attempting to fight them." Lance led him into the living room as he spoke, where Todd sat, the TV remote in one hand. Several nasty looking bruises were evident on his face and arms, not to mention the split lip and impressive black eye.
"He won't say what happened, just mumbles something about defending someone's honor, and then goes back to flipping channels and staring at the screen." Lance gave his friend a worried look before turning back to Shawn. "When I got back, he was asleep. I actually thought that Wanda was watching him for a second, but I think I was just seeing things. She hasn't hurt him all afternoon though, so I guess she feels kinda sorry for him."
"You guys know that I can hear ya, right?" The two turned to look at Todd, who was flipping through channels, wincing every time he hit the button. Shawn motioned for Lance to let him do the talking before settling on the arm of the couch.
"Soooo, why exactly did you decide to take on twenty five guys; half of whom were drunk, and the other half who would have gladly mounted your head on a wall? You don't look like the type of guy with a death wish." Shawn paused for a moment. "Unless you count that incident with you walking in on Wanda."
Toad flushed a deep red as he shouted, "I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!!" He took a deep breath and continued, "I needed to go, and the shower was turned off. So I went in. She wasn't undressed or anything. She was just getting ready to take a shower. Okay?"
"So what was the purpose behind the fight today?"
"I was on my way to the mall to check out the new game shop they got. I was going over the rooftops and passed by the alley. I heard one of Duncan's goons laughing about something and stopped to listen. Turns out they were debating which mutant girls they thought were hot enough too… well, ya know."
"Please say they mentioned Kitty. It would give me a good excuse to kill Duncan." The house shook a little as Lance contemplated what he would do to the arrogant jock.
"Easy man," Shawn placed a hand on Lance's shoulder in an attempt to calm him. "I gave 'em a beating they'll remember for a looong time, so I already got them back for ya."
Todd cleared his throat; then continued once the other two turned back to him. "Any way; I was gonna leave when I heard 'The Tank' say something along the lines of, 'What about the Scarlet Bitch?' I totally lost it. I tried to jump the dude, but I missed and hit Duncan instead. Needless to say, he was less than happy. The rest is history."
"Did you even stop to think that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad idea to jump one guy in the middle of twenty of his friends? Man you must really care for Wanda if just one comment about her was enough to get you to attack someone."
Todd sat up and looked around, making sure Fred, Pietro and Wanda were all gone. They were nowhere in sight. His voice was serious as he spoke. "I'd die for her man. I feel for her what I'm pretty sure you feel for Kitty, Lance." There was no trace of hesitation, or the usual sardonic tone in his voice as he said it.
Further conversation was cut off as a white headed wind made its presence known. Dashing around the room, Pietro came to a stop in front of the TV, arms crossed over his chest. "What happened, get your tongue caught in a bug zapper?" the speed demon mocked.
"Hello Twiggy." Pietro's head snapped around to lock gazes with Shawn. A sneer of contempt twisted his features, making his face look almost mask-like.
"What do you want, X-man?" The venom in his voice could have made a cobra proud. "Come back to let me humiliate you again?"
Shawn raised his hands in the universal time out gesture. "Hold on; you humiliated me? I think you cracked your head against that tree a little harder than I thought. Besides, I didn't really want to… oh wait, yes I did. Never mind." Lance and Todd both sniggered as Pietro's face turned a strange reddish-purplish color. "If you want another taste of the Zanzoken, I'll be happy to oblige."
Toad and Lance both looked puzzled at this last part of the statement. (A/N: Todd does the puzzled look very well, doesn't he?) "Dude, zanzo-wha?" Todd asked. "I thought it was called the afterimage technique." Lance added.
"Zanzoken, that's the traditional name of the ninjitsu technique I used against Twiggy. But it translates out to 'Afterimage technique', so I just call it that instead."
Todd and Lance's response? A short, foolish sounding, "Oh"
Pietro fisted his hands at his side, his temper rising to near dangerous levels, as the other three ignored him. 'I'll show this big-shot just who he's messing with; then I'll remind those other two that I'm still in charge.'
Todd noticed his "leader's" rising anger and decided that, while entertaining, a fight in the middle of the room might end up in him getting hurt more than he already was. So, he played on Pietro's one fear. "Is that my babycakes comin up the walk, yo? She looks a little pissed."
Pietro was gone at a speed that made his earlier entrance look like a slow jog.
"Whoa." Was the only thing that Shawn could say. 'He must be terrified of Wanda,' he thought. Shawn looked at the settling dust trail for a moment. "Cool!" He exclaimed, giving Todd a look of gratitude. Then his expression turned thoughtful for a moment. "Yo, Toad? Do you call Wanda stuff like that when she's around? I mean, a friend of mine back home tried the same thing with this cheerleader he was trying to impress, and all she did was get royally pissed off. Between that and your; um, fragrance, I can see why she doesn't really like you that much."
"So you're saying give up the baby talk and start bathing regularly? That's all it takes to land a chick!?!" Todd sounded like Christmas had come early.
"Um, that and keep from making an idiot of yourself and embarrassing them while you do it I guess. I was never a really big ladies man; I left that to the jocks and concentrated on keeping the bully population down to a minimum."
Todd heaved himself off of the couch and limped off.
"Where are you going man?" Lance asked him.
The response almost caused him to faint from shock. "To get a shower, it's been three days since my last one. Besides, I need to soak my muscles; they're starting to stiffen up."
As soon as Lance recovered, he looked at Shawn with something between laughter and awe in his eyes. "You sure that your power isn't mind control? The rest of us have been dropping hints for months, but he never took them."
Shawn shrugged, "Did anyone ever tell him to his face? Sometimes the direct approach works the best. Not to change the subject or anything; but how come you and Kitty aren't joined at the hip? You both seem to like each other as much as Todd likes Wanda. In other words; a lot." That was the understatement of the millennium chuckled Shawn's mental part time pain-in-the-butt. Trying to help friend's love lives here, we'll trade insults and heckling later, k? Ok, I'll insult you when you're staring at Maria's butt; again. Its fun watching you try to come up with snappy retorts while all the blood is draining from your head and headed south No comment Current score: Shawn: 0 Bahumut: 1 You have a name!?!? Yeah, guess I forgot to tell you that when I first started yappin at ya; sorry
Shawn filed this little piece of info in the back of his mind, and looked at Lance. The other boy's expression was miserable. "Um… I'm thinking that that was a bad thing to say. Sorry, man I didn't know that you guys weren't hooked up officially." Shawn paused for a moment before adding in a slightly less guilty sounding voice, "I mean you each talk about the other all of the time; so I figured… well, ya know." Lance just sighed as he flopped down onto the couch.
'Better change the subject,' Shawn thought. He ignored the cuttingly sarcastic Ya think from Bahumut. "So where do you think we should get together for the poker game?" Lance shook off his sudden fit of melancholia, and settled into thought.
After a few minutes of deep thought, he spoke. "Well…there's an old shack down by the old coal refinery. It's still got power and the structure is still sound. No heat, though there is a table and some old chairs last I saw."
"Ding-ding-ding! We have a winnah! Now we just need to decide when to get together. Any specific days that you got free?"
Lance shook his head. "Since the entire Hood got expelled, my days have been free."
Shawn nodded. "I could sneak off on Thursdays. That's when I take a ten mile run. I usually lounge around and take it slow, so I take about three hours. If I went as fast as possible, I could probably get it done in an hour. That leaves two hours to play cards. I think we may just be able to pull this off!"
After another half hour of talking it over, they had ironed out any possible wrinkles in the plan that they could see. Shawn left, saying that he was going to inform their third player of where and when they were going to play. Lance left not ten minutes later, going to look for a make-up present for Kitty, like he had done since the argument in the parking lot. He was determined to get her back, even if he had to publicly humiliate himself in order to do it.
Wanda walked into the house, a bored look on her face. She had gone out, just to walk and relieve her boredom, but had just gotten even more bored. As she walked in, she heard the pipes rattle in protest at being shut off. She had thought that she was the only one here. There had been no sing of any of the other Brotherhood members when she had arrived. "Fred, that you?" she called. 'There's no way it could be Pietro, he would have been done and out by now. And there's no way in hell that Toad would be taking a shower."
She chuckled to herself as she made her way to her room. As she passed the bathroom door, she was nearly bowled over by Todd as he leapt out of the room. She nearly landed on her butt, but he managed to snag one of her arms. Proving that he wasn't as weak as his spindly frame suggested, he held her steady instead of getting dragged down on top of her, which would have led to him being eviscerated.
"Sorry, bout that babyca…I mean Wanda," Toad scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Wanda just stared at him in surprise. 'That can't be Toad,' she thought. It certainly didn't look like him. His skin still had the ever present greenish cast, but it was far lighter now, barely visible. His hair was no longer a greasy mess, but curled ever so slightly at the bangs. All in all, she found him almost…handsome. 'What am I thinking!!!? This is Toad, the guy who snags bugs out of the air!'
Toad's voice startled her from her thoughts. "Hey," he said, waving one hand in front of her face. "Wha?" she jerked, once she realized that he still had his other hand gently clamped around her arm. "I asked if you were alright?" he paused for a moment, "Are you?"
Wanda was still a little bemused, so it took her a moment to grasp the question. "Huh, oh, yes, I'm fine." She looked at him for a moment, then asked "Why did you get a shower? I thought you had your monthly shower three days ago."
Todd shrugged nonchalantly. "I felt dirty. Besides," he added, "I needed to soak so I didn't get anymore sore than I already was." Wanda just nodded, then continued to her room. Before closing the door, she turned around and gave him a small smile. "I like the new look," she said, and then closed the door. Todd waited until he got to his room, then began a silent victory dance. 'I guess scrubbing off all those layers of dirt and algae was worth it' he thought with something between a grin and a grimace as he rubbed his arms, sore from nearly a half hour straight of scrubbing in the shower.
-Later that night-
Shawn tossed and turned, but couldn't get to sleep. He had finally tracked down Gambit after nearly two hours of searching. It had been a lucky hunch that had him looking near Rouge's usual hangout, a small bookstore. He had found the card player on the roof opposite the store, so intent on the Goth that was picking out books below, that he swung out with his staff when Shawn tapped him on the shoulder. There had been a loud "CLANK" as the staff met one of Shawn's nun-chucks. The Cajun had apologized, saying 'Remy's mind was elsewhere, mon'ami.'
Shawn had waved away his apology and immediately started explaining the plan to the slightly older man. Gambit hadn't found any reason that he couldn't come, and had broached the subject of a possible fourth player for the game. Shawn's response? "As long as he's not a snitch or psychotic he's welcome to the game." After the little rendezvous had been set up, Shawn had returned to the Institute, too tired to bother with the arcade he had planned on visiting before the day's events had sidetracked him. After a short nap and dinner, he had retired for the night.
Unfortunately, his roommates snores, coupled with his own restless mind, were keeping him awake. He tossed for a few more minutes, then sat up, got out of bed, and padded over to his instruments. 'Should I or shouldn't I?' Just do it already, that way we can both get some sleep Bahumut tiredly growled. Shawn didn't reply, but picked up the worn old reed flute and stepped out onto the room's balcony. The nights had become nice enough that you could leave the doors open if you so wished, plus Shawn had been trained too always have at least one other exit open, just incase he needed it.
He turned and scanned the walls of the Institute. There! a ledge stuck out far enough to provide a spot to stand, albeit pressed up against the wall, and there was another within leaping distance of the roof. Bahumut spoke up just as Shawn gathered himself to make the first leap. Wouldn't it be less likely to break your neck if we, oh I don't know, flew?!?! Shawn mentally smacked himself, then concentrated, letting both wings and tail form, then taking off towards the roof. Once he landed, he reabsorbed the appendages into his body and sat cross legged near the roof's edge. He began to play, letting the soft sweet melody calm his mind and drifted away on the notes.
Maria watched and listened from the other end of the roof. Intrigued by the melody, she followed the sound to the source. On seeing who was playing, she shook her head in resignation. 'I should have figured,' she thought. As the melody finished, Shawn stood up, and stretched, much like the time after he had finished playing his harmonica back at he cliff. She still couldn't figure what had possessed her to drag his carcass across nearly fifteen miles of rough terrain to the Institute. She had just felt that she absolutely had to help this strange crimson eyed boy.
Shawn turned around, and nearly ran straight into Maria. If he hadn't put on the brakes as fast as possible, they probably would have landed in a tangle. He blushed at the image that Bahumut happily provided. Stop that! The other presence in his mind just chuckled. 'Wow she's good' was his second thought.
They both stood there for a moment, neither breaking the uncomfortable silence. After a minute, Maria broke the tension with a question. "Why are you up here?" The question unintentionally came out more like a demand.
Shawn just shrugged off the harsh sound of the question and answered in a normal voice. "Couldn't sleep." The look she gave told him to elaborate. "Whenever I couldn't sleep, I'd climb to the roof of the dojo and play either my harmonica or my flute. Since I might have woken people with my harmonica, I opted for the flute." He was silent for a moment, then looked at her. "Okay, your turn to tell me what you're doing up here." She blushed and mumbled something that sounded like "stargazing". He nodded and plunked down on the edge of the roof. She stood for a moment before sitting down about a foot away from him.
"I heard there was supposed to be a meteor shower around midnight from Dr. McCoy. We should have front row seats for it," Shawn leaned back and watched the dark night sky. Since there was no moon, the first streaks were easily visible. Both teens were captivated by the flashes of light, pointing out the really impressive ones to each other. Unconsciously, they moved closer together until less than three inches separated them. As the last light faded, Shawn turned to say something along the lines of 'wow that was really cool', but found that if he moved his head down not an three inches, he and Maria would have been caught in a kiss. Maria was looking back at him, big brown eyes wide with surprise. 'Her eyes look like you could fall right into them,' Shawn thought dazedly, before snapping back to reality.
He scrambled to his feet, stammering and stuttering. With a hurried "See you later," he took flight, leaving a bewildered Maria looking at the spot where he had disappeared from view.
Back in his room, Shawn shook his head while Bahumut ragged him about the rooftop encounter. You should have kissed her he insisted. What if she hadn't wanted to be kissed? She would have killed me; then Claws* would have dug me up and killed me again! So he's a little overprotective, so what? I still say you should have kissed her. If anything you would have died a happy man Shut up! Shawn mentally yelled. Bahumut's mental reply held the air of the mortally offended. Fine, consider the subject closed With that, he withdrew to his corner of their shared mind.
Shawn pulled the covers over himself and drifted off to sleep. And he dreamed of big brown eyes and kissable lips.
-Magneto's Base-
"I would like to welcome you to the Acolytes Mr. Krupner," Magneto addressed a figure in a voluminous black hooded cloak that hid all of his features. The figure was five' eight" tall, and clutched a staff that looked like it had been carved from ebony in one, almost skeletal, hand. The figure waited until Magneto had finished speaking, then nodded and spoke. The voice sounded like an icicle feels; cold, sharp and hard.
"I thank you for this opportunity, but I would prefer to be called…" as he spoke, a silver glow traveled from his hand to the staff, and formed a wicked looking curved blade at the top, making the staff into a scythe. "Thanatos," he finished, as the glow from the blade lit up enough of his face to see his eyes. They were a hard, flashing green, with the faintest beginning of a scar just barely visible under his right eye.
There's the end of the 7th chapter. Next chapter: The Poker Game! How will Lance react when he finds out that the other two players are Colossus and Gambit? And just who exactly is this 'Thanatos'? Find out next time, and as always; Read & Review!
Quiz time!!!-Two questions.
#1- What does the word Thanatos signify?
#2- Who is 'Claws'?
Correct answers earn a gold star and a free ride on my muse.