Take the Long Way Home
Here's my Christmas present to all of you readers, chapter 11! Time to introduce the man who pretty much raised Shawn; as well as mention two of his old friends. Plus meet a very interesting friend of his from the dojo. Maria walks in, claws bared. "This special friend wouldn't happen to be a girl, now would it?" she asks sweetly. No. "Good, then I won't kill you." Okay… I think I'll start the fic now before somebody gets hurt. Namely me!
Silver- Read the first paragraph of chapter four. The answer is right there.
LW- thanks man, and all the answers to your questions shall be revealed in time.
L1701E-Thank you for the permission to use Kid Razor, he will be appearing soon. And yes, there are a few similarities between Jake and Shawn, but these are purely coincidental, much like the similarities between your created Dreadnok, Virus, and a character of my own creation that will be making an appearance later on in the fic. Also, do you think I could use Tusk as well? I kinda need him for this chapter I'm planning.
Animeluvr1-look at it this way; if I had a life, I probably wouldn't have time to write this story. You know Bobby; he lets his mouth run without letting his brain check the words that are coming out of it. Besides, Logan and X-23 don't look all that much alike; do they? And how is it possible to lose something you never had? Kidding, kidding…umm could you put the flamethrower down now? Please? *Draco sticks his head into the room* "I would run now if I were you." Good idea…YAAAAHHHHH!!!
P.S.: Due to events beyond my control, I will be unable to post any chapters during the Christmas/New Years break. Don't blame me, blame the piece of shit computer I have at home. I've been typing this whole thing on a school owned laptop that I'll have to return at the end of the school year. Hopefully, I will have a better home computer before that.
Disclaimer: The purple flying squirrels own all!!!
"AAA"-talking
'AAA'-thought
AAA-telepathy
AAA-self debate or conversation with "feral side" in Shawn and Rahne's case.
Chapter 11-Say hello to Mozart, Scott!
In a show of complete agreement, Scott, Kurt and Bobby had all agreed to not mention the fight at the café to any of the instructors when they got back. However, they hadn't agreed to tell any of the other students. Bobby told Jubilee and Scott told Jean, of course, who in turn told the rest of the Institute residents. But by the time it reached the instructor's ears, it sounded like Duncan had attacked Amanda with an Uzi and Shawn had killed the jock, so they just shrugged it off as some stupid story and let it lay.
It was now Sunday and the greater majority of the student body was lounging about in various parts of the mansion. Shawn was in his room, messing with some tunes on his keyboard while he, Bobby and Jamie fine tuned a new plan they had cooked up for Scott.
"So we've got everything planned out. But one thing still bothers me," Jamie scratched his head as he looked at a complex diagram on the floor. "Where the heck are we gonna find a baby alligator, a fire ants nest and steak flavored honey?"
Shawn winced as he hit a wrong note, "I got connections. But I still say it would be better if we put the laxatives into a cake and said it was a gift from Jean."
Bobby looked up from his doodling on the diagram. "Hey, do you guys hear something?" he asked. Shawn paused in his playing and the three of them strained their ears.
"It sounds like…ZZ Top's 'Gimme All Your Lovin'?" Shawn mused. He got up from his bed and looked out the window. "No way," he nearly whispered. Then he shouted it. "NO WAY!!!" he yelled. Pulling into the Institutes drive was a jeep that was even more battered and broken down looking than Lance's. There was a tarp over the back, but the top was uncovered and you could plainly see someone in the front. The jeep was also pulling a tiny trailer behind it.
Bobby and Jamie came up along side him, rubbing their ears. "What's all the shouting about?" Jamie asked. Shawn just stood there for a moment before dashing out of the room, hollering at the top of his lungs.
"WAAAAHOOOOOOO!" he yelled, racing down the halls. Scott and Jean poked their heads out from a room.
"Hey! Some people are trying to study here!" Scott snapped.
"Since when does studying involve lipstick?" Amara, who had stuck her head out of the opposite door, asked, raising one eyebrow. Jean just blushed while Scott stammered and brushed at the tell-tale marks on his face.
"Might as well see what's got his boxers in a bundle," Sam commented as he passed by with Rahne.
Outside, the jeep had pulled to a stop and a man was just getting out when Shawn burst through the doors. "SENSEI!" he yelled, throwing himself at the man. The man laughed as he easily caught the slightly taller boy and grabbed him in a bear hug. The rest of the students gathered at the top of the steps and stared. Whatever images they had come up with for Shawn's uncle, it defiantly hadn't been this!
Shawn's uncle was about 5' 10" and was wearing a loud orange tropical shirt and faded jeans. He had on a pair of hiking boots and Yankees baseball cap. Underneath the hat, his hair was a shade of brown similar to Shawn's, but it was darker, and pulled into a short ponytail at the back. His hazel eyes twinkled with a mischievousness that was scarcely contained.
Up on the roof, Remy scratched his head with the tip of his staff. "Dis be Shawn's oncle?" he muttered. He shrugged and leapt down to the back yard of the Institute. He had already done what he had come to do. His little delivery was tucked away where the person it was meant for would find it without any trouble.
Shawn finished greeting his uncle and turned and called to the assembled students and teachers that were gathered there. "Everyone, come and meet my uncle."
Almost everyone gathered round, only Maria hanging back a little. 'I know I've seen him somewhere before, but I can't remember where!' she thought as she studied his profile.
"Sensei, this is Bobby, our own personal ice machine and prank master extraordinaire. That's Jamie who Bobby and I have taken under our figurative wings to teach the fine art of pranking. Rahne is the one next to Sam, who's literally cannon fodder. Amara's the one with the royal attitude…" At this point he was forced to duck an impromptu wave of fire. "Jubilee is the one in the trench coat. (AN: I can't remember if she had the coat in the series or not, so I'm just gonna let her have it.) Tabby is the blonde; Kurt is the dude with the tail. The brown hired girl is Kitty, the red head is Jean, and the guy with glasses is her boy friend Scott." Scott and Jen both blushed at this little tidbit of info. "Rouge is the one with the white streak in her hair, Ray's the one with those little red spikes in his hair, Roberto, and the one hanging at the back is Maria." Shawn introduced them each in turn, and each in turn received a friendly nod.
When he got to Maria, Shawn's uncle raised one eyebrow almost imperceptibly. He had noted a change in the tone of Shawn's voice when he referred to the girl. It was faint, not even noticeable to most people. But he had spent enough time around Shawn; training him, helping him with homework, talking with him about a nightmare or nursing him through the flu, that he could tell when there was something going on.
And something was definitely going on.
Shawn turned and pointed out the different instructors. "That's Dr. McCoy with the full body fur coat, Ms. Munroe, Prof. Xavier, and the guy coming out of the garage is Mr. Logan." Again, the nod, this time accompanied by a handshake for Beast and the Prof. When he got to Storm, he elegantly kissed her hand.
"Enchante mademoiselle," he murmured. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Logan bristle slightly. Storm merely gave him a slight smile. When he went to shake Logan's hand, the other man put a little more pressure into his grip than necessary. Shawn's uncle merely cocked an eyebrow.
Shawn turned to the students and instructors. "Everybody, this is my uncle and sensei, Thomas O'Reily…"
"Also known as The Wily O'Reily," Logan added.
"I see my reputation precedes me," Shawn's uncle laughed. "But please, just call me Tom, or Mr. O'Reily." He looked at Storm. "And you can call me anytime," he added with a wink. Storm blinked while Logan bristled even more. Shawn just rolled his eyes while Amara, Jubilee and Kitty all giggled.
"This is an unexpected surprise Mr. O'Reily," the professor said. "Would you like to come inside and tell us the reason for your visit?"
Tom nodded and started to follow the Prof. He stopped suddenly and smacked himself in the forehead. "Is something wrong Mr. O'Reily?" the professor asked.
"Yeah, I forgot something in the jeep. But can ask you a question real fast?"
"Depends on the question bub," Wolverine huffed.
"What are your policies on animals?"
The professor raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?" But Shawn interrupted him.
"You didn't bring who I think you did, did you?" he asked in disbelief.
His uncle shrugged. "What would you have had me do, leave him at the dojo? He would have turned the place upside down, terrified the students, maybe even set up another poker game!"
"That's beside the point; you still shouldn't have brought him here! He'll cause mass chaos!"
The students and staff listened to the exchange with mounting worry. "What type of animal do you think they're talking about?" Amara whispered to Kitty.
"Maybe it's some type of monkey?" she whispered back, "They did say it could play poker."
Logan stepped between the two arguing martial artists. "Just what type of animal is this thing bub?" he growled at Shawn's uncle.
"I might as well just introduce him to you," The other man sighed, walking back to the jeep. Instead of heading towards the trailer, where everyone who cared assumed the animal in question was being kept, he headed for the back of the jeep. He banged on the side and shouted, "Wake up, we're here already!"
The tarp covering the back of the jeep stirred and a low, grumbling growl sounded.
"Ah don know bout the rest of ye, but I know tha tha's no monkey," Rahne growled, tensing.
"Ah, relax, he won't actually hurt anyone. He might nip at you if you annoy him, and play a few tricks, but other than that he's harmless," Shawn said, doing very little to quite her fears, or any one else's for that matter.
The cover over the jeep stirred again and a large tan muzzle poked out from under it. The muzzle was followed by two slightly sleepy amber eyes. A sleek body was followed closely by a bushy tail. In the end, a huge male coyote was sitting on the ground next to the jeep. He was a full three and three quarters of a foot tall at the shoulder, making him larger than most wolves!
"Everybody, this is Mozart," Shawn sighed, indicating the canine with a sweeping gesture. "Watch out for him, there's a reason the Indian's called the coyote the Trickster."
"Oh my," Beast murmured. The rest of the instructors and all of the students seemed to be in varying states of shock and interest. Mozart took in all of their looks with a gleam in his eyes, then yawned loudly, seeming to stick his tongue out just emphasize his very large, very white, very sharp looking teeth. He then went up and began to sniff at each of them discreetly.
"Um…Shawn, what is he doing?" Jean asked nervously.
"Relax; he's just getting to know you. He has this weird thing where he can tell if he's gonna like someone by their scent. Just don't make any moves that could antagonize him. Those teeth 'aint just for show," Shawn's uncle said.
When Mozart got to Kitty, he stopped, looked her in the eye, cocked his head and gave her his most innocent puppy-dog look. She fell for it; hook, line, and sinker.
"How CUTE!" she squealed, bending down and wrapping her arms around his neck in a bear hug. Shawn snickered as Mozart's eyes bugged, and he began to whimper after a few seconds, tugging futilely against her grip.
"Uh…Kitty? Ah think he needs air," Sam hazarded.
"Oops," Kitty blushed, letting go of the coyote's neck. He shot her a dirty look, then continued with his inspection. When he got to Scott, he stopped, sniffed the air around the boy, circled till he was behind Scott, and lifted his leg.
"MOZART!" Shawn yelled. The coyote put his leg back down and turned to give Shawn an offended look. All of the other boys and most of the girls started laughing. Only Jean and Scott looked offended. Storm looked shocked, as did Beast. The Professor had merely quirked an eyebrow and Wolverine was struggling to hide a smile.
Scott shot the canine a dirty look. 'Did he just chuckle?' he wondered, hearing a sound coming from Mozart. The coyote innocently continued his inspection of the rest of the assembled people.
When he got to Maria, he stopped, sniffed the air once more then shot a quizzical glance at Logan. "What are you lookin at mutt?" the feral x-man growled, unsheathing his claws for emphasis. Mozart dismissed the threat with an indifferent snort. Then he rubbed his head up against the feral clone's legs. Maria made startled sound, moving back in surprise.
"Relax, I think he really likes you," Shawn said, looking on in interest. "I don't get it; he never takes to a person this fast! The only exceptions were Sensei and me."
A loud crashing sound from the far side of the Institute grounds, near the woods, interrupted any further debate on anything. All heads whipped around to see the plume of dust that was lazily drifting into the air. "What the HELL!" Tom exclaimed.
Scott and Jean shared a look. "Brotherhood," they said simultaneously.
"A fight?" Shawn's uncle asked eagerly. Kitty nodded slowly, not really sure why he was so eager. She found out soon enough.
"Mozart, take point! Shawn cover the right flank!" he shouted vaulting over his jeep. He grabbed something out of the passenger side seat as he went. It was some sort of belt with three large lumps on them that none of the mutants could make out, due to the speed the man was moving at. Mozart easily caught up with, and then passed him, rushing to take the point position. Shawn shrugged apologetically, then raced after his uncle. Everyone just stared after them for a few moments.
"Logan," Storm asked quietly, "What just happened."
The X-man in question shook his head slowly. "To be perfectly honest 'Roro, I haven't got a frigging clue," he muttered.
"What are we waiting for, Mr. O'Reily could get hurt!" Jean said, shaking off her shock. She used her powers to levitate and raced after the already vanished figures. The rest of the X-men and New Mutant teams hot on her trail.
---With our Heroes---
Pietro cackled wildly as he watched a larger section of the wall collapse. "This'll show those X-men who's really in charge!"
"Whatever," Lance muttered. Out of all of them, he was the only not in battle gear. 'The only reason I even agreed to do this is because Quicksilver's daddy would have made my life more of a nightmare than it already is,' he thought. 'How he would do it is beyond me,' he added with a sardonic quirk of his lips.
"Do we really have to trash the place?" Toad asked nervously.
Pietro glared at him. "Give me one reason why we shouldn't trash the place!" He snapped. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Wanda move forward just a bit before going back to her original position. He smirked at this.
'Guess Shawn's advice really helped Toad out. If he keeps it up he might actually be able to ask her on a date without getting hexed into one of the next three time zones,' he thought.
"C'mon, I wanna smash something!" The Blob ground out, grinding one huge fist into his palm. A blur of motion interrupted their little powwow, as a man came running towards the wreckage.
"Hey Wanda, doesn't that guy look sorta like…" Toad began. She nodded in return. Pietro however, was to occupied by the prospect of an easy fight to listen. He rubbed his hands together gleefully, and raced off. 'I oughta be able to have some fun with this old geezer,' he thought.
"Hey old timer! What's the matter? Lose your prunes?" he mocked. The man just looked at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" Pietro demanded crossly.
"Nothin Twiggy, just thinking how much fun kicking your ass is gonna be." The older man replied. Pietro's jaw dropped. This, this human dared to think that he could beat the great Pietro Maximoff? And why the HELL was he calling him by that stupid nickname!?
"I'm gonna flatten you so fast, it'll look like an act of god," he spat. The older man said nothing, merely reached down and unhooked something from his belt. It was a pair of headphones. He settled them around his neck, and pressed the play button on the Walkman that was connected to said headphones. A song began blaring from the device, a song that Pietro didn't recognize.
[I make my livin off the evening news]
[Just give me something, something I can use]
[People love it when you lose. They love dirty laundry]
The man settled down into a crouch, giving Pietro the universal, 'come and get some' gesture with one hand. Pietro gladly obliged, only to have his opponent gracefully handspring over him nearly a full sixteenth of a second before the punch should have hit.
"You're telegraphing your punches," the man said in a conversational tone. Lance started in surprise. 'That sounds familiar,' he thought, narrowing his eyes in speculation. Toad watched in silence, while Blob cheered Pietro on.
Wanda watched as the two fighters exchanged blows, only a quarter of her brother's punches connecting. The other man's punches and kicks seemed to be light, as if he was just playing. And that stupid song was starting to annoy her! She conjured up a hex-bolt and prepared to throw it, when she heard a yipping sound coming from her left.
She looked over, and saw what she at first mistook for Wolfsbane. She shook her head. 'That can't be Wolfsbane! It's a boy dog!' The dog looked at her a moment, cocked his head to the side, then blew a raspberry at her. That got her attention! (AN: I know, I know, dogs can't do stuff like that, but Mozart aint exactly a normal coyote. Explanation next chapter.)
She threw the hex-bolt at the canine, just wanting to scare it away. Instead, the dog neatly sidestepped the bolt of energy, then gave her a look that said, 'Is that all you got?' That only served to make her mad. She began to throw hex-bolts rapid fire, one right after the other. But no matter how carefully she aimed, he seemed to be just one step ahead of her! Even worse, he seemed to be laughing at her, tongue lolling out of his mouth lazily, while his eyes seemed alive with mirth.
"You're a tricky little basterd, aren't you?" she asked grimly, preparing yet another hex-bolt. She nearly made the thing explode in shock when a deep, laughing voice seemed to sound in the surrounding air.
"Girly, you have no idea," the voice chuckled. Toad, who had finally noticed that his crush was having trouble; bounded forward in order to give her a hand. Unfortunately, he was intercepted by a slightly peeved Shawn.
"What are you guys doing here!?" he snapped, glaring at Lance. Lance held up his hands as if to say 'don't look at me; I'm just here to watch'. Shawn redirected his glare towards Todd.
"Hey, it aint my fault yo! Quickie made us do this! Me, Wanda an Lance didn't really want to trash the place! Honest yo!" the amphibian protested, backing away from the martial artist. Shawn sighed, he couldn't really blame Toad, the little guy wasn't really that great of a fighter, he couldn't really stand up to Pietro. With the right training and a little effort on certain people's parts however…
"Tell ya what I'm gonna do Toad," he glanced towards Wanda, who was engaged in a furious screeching fit at Mozart, mainly along the lines of 'stand still you fleabag!' "I'll set up a rescue scenario with her, but you got to take her and Fred home. Deal?"
Toad thought it over for a moment. "What do I gotta do?" he asked finally.
Shawn smiled, then simply said, "Run interference." He turned and shouted at Mozart. "YO, MUTT!" Mozart's ears swiveled towards Shawn. Wanda was so focused on taking Mozart out; she didn't even acknowledge the shouting. "RED-42, HUTT, HUTT; HIKE!" Shawn yelled
On the first 'HUTT' Mozart dodged to the left, to the right on the second, and on 'HIKE!' he ducked under one last hex-bolt, and rushed Wanda head on. He slammed against her legs, knocking her off of her feet. "That would be your cue," Shawn smiled. Toad flashed him a thumbs up before hopping to the rescue.
The rescue was actually fairly easy for Toad. He came at Mozart from the side, lobbing huge amounts of slime. Mozart yelped in surprise, then growled menacingly. Toad skidded to a stop beside Wanda. "Nice puppy," he gulped. He stooped and helped Wanda back to her feet, never taking his eyes off of Mozart. "I think it might be better to make a tactical retreat now," he gulped as an optic blast split the air over his head.
"For once I agree with you," Wanda said, as the two of them beat a hasty retreat.
"Dude, shouldn't you be leaving too?" Todd asked Lance as they passed. Lance shook his head.
"I haven't done anything, so why would they attack me?" he shrugged. "Besides," he added, "I wanna see how this fight turns out." He jerked his thumb towards Pietro and Tom.
"You hit like a girl!" Pietro mocked, throwing another punch.
"Well you hit like a gay man!" Tom returned as said punch connected with his open palm. That kind of pissed Quicksilver off. He kicked his speed into high gear and started running circles around the older man.
At this point, all of the X-men finally made their appearance. "Is Mr. O'Reily fighting Quicksilver?" Jean gasped.
"Not for long," Logan growled unsheathing his claws. He started forward, only to find Mozart and Shawn blocking his way. "What are you doing?!" he snarled.
"Let Sensei have a little fun," Shawn smiled. "He's not as powerless as you might think," he added cryptically.
Back in the fight, Pietro had slowed down to gloat for a moment. "Face it gramps, I've got you out classed!" he crowed.
Tom smiled through his split lip. "You may have me out classed, but I've got you OUTNUMBERED!" He shouted.
"What's he talking about?" Scott asked Shawn.
"Zanzoken times a hundred and ten" the boy replied.
"Zanzo-what?"
"You'll see."
Tom dropped his hands to his sides and just stood there. "What are you gonna do old man? Wait for me to die of boredom?" Pietro mocked. Suddenly another Tom appeared next to the first.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Logan shouted. Another copy appeared, then another, then another, and…(Well I think you get the idea.) Within seconds, Pietro was surrounded by transparent copies.
"Charles, do you know if Cerebro detected any new mutant signatures earlier?" Beast asked.
"He's not a mutant Dr. McCoy." Shawn said. "This is the secret technique of the Dragonfire Dojo, the Zanzoken, or after image technique."
Pietro began to race through the copies, sneering as he went. "Please, I've already seen this lame trick from that stupid Shawn kid!"
"You can do this too?!" Jean looked at Shawn. He shrugged.
"I haven't been able to fully master the 'hundred and ten' part of the technique, but I have the basics of it down pat enough to produce at least ten copies, but that's pretty much my limit right now."
"My nephew is not STUPID!!!" one of the copies yelled. New copies began to appear as the older ones faded away. But there was one difference. These copies were holding sais!(AN: For the uninformed, or merely stupid, think of Raphael, the red Ninja Turtle's, weapons.)
"Please, I can still take you!" Pietro sneered. Lance shook his head. 'He's gonna mess up because of his stupid pride; again,' He thought sadly.
Pietro began to run wildly through the copies searching for the real fighter. Suddenly from his left, he heard the man singing along to one of the verses to the song he was still listening to.
"Dirty little secrets; dirty little lies,"
"We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pies"
"Love to cut you down to size, we love dirty laundry"
Pietro swerved towards the voice, but at the words 'love to cut you down to size', a single sai flew towards him from his right, embedding itself in the ground right in front of his foot. He couldn't dodge in time, and tripped over it, sending him head over heels. He stopped rolling however, when he hit the Blob. (AN: the song is Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" for those of you who want to know.)
"Don't take me out of the game coach," Pietro croaked, the sick grin of a boy who had ridden a roller coaster just one too many times, spread over his face.
"I think we should just go home Blob, commander-in-chief Pietro is looking a little green around the gills," Lance laughed.
"Fine," Freddy scowled, slinging Pietro over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Lance turned back and looked at the X-men, most of whom were in various states of speechlessness.
"Sorry about the wall man," he said to Shawn. He glanced at Kitty for a moment, misery showing plainly in his eyes. Then he turned and walked away. Kitty made a move as if to go after him, but Scott clamped a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
"Well," Shawn's uncle said cheerfully, pulling his sai out of the dirt, "At least he had some manners." He brushed the dirt off of the tri-blade before sheathing it opposite its brother. "And his friend proved to be most entertaining," he added as an after thought. After he said this, the students were all thinking something along the lines of 'this guy is NUTS!'
"How'd you?" Beast started to ask.
"Do that?" Shawn's uncle shrugged. "It's pretty much impossible to explain the Zanzoken. All I really truly know about how it functions is that it takes intense concentration and a definite sense of direction. If you don't think about where you're going, then the technique will fail."
"Alright then, now that today's excitement is over, let's go back to the mansion," the professor said. "Storm, could you please call the construction company and ask them to send someone out to repair this immediately?"
"Of course Charles," she nodded.
Everyone turned and began to file back to the Institute. Tom hung back for a moment, then laid a hand on his nephew's shoulder. "Something wrong Sensei?" Shawn asked, noting the dismal look on his uncle's face.
The older man sighed. "Shawn, it's about Hack and Slash." He shook his head a little and sighed one more time as his nephew started to look concerned. "Oh, no they're not hurt. At least… they were both in good health when I last saw them. But they're gone now. They both left town not more than a week ago."
Shawn looked like his uncle had just drawn a pistol and shot him right between the eyes.
---To be Continued---
I AM EVIL!!!!! Find out exactly who Hack and Slash are, next chapter. Also, we find out some surprising background info on Mozart. Plus a little Lancitty gets started when Tom offers to do one of the most dangerous things you can do at the Institute…take Kitty for a driving lesson! But Kitty gets a taste of her own medicine! So as always, Read & Review!