Take the Long Way Home

            Well, here's chapter seventeen. And for all of you who love Tom, I'm sorry, but he's gonna be leaving for a while. But do not fear, he shall return!  And here's some review replies, since my muses are still recuperating from their training session with Vegeta.  But before I start, has anyone realized exactly what Biker was modeled after?

P.S.: Ya know what?  I've just realized that I've been spelling Rogue's name wrong for the past sixteen chapters!  Kinda funny though. ^_^

Legendary Warrior- Hey, relax, he's gonna have another brief appearance in this chapter, but he won't be fully introduced for the next two chapters.  I have some things I need to take care of first.

Warconq-Good things come to those who wait my friend.  They will get together eventually, but I have a certain order I want things to go in.

marie lebeau- I'm glad that you like Hack.  And I thought that the poster was a nice touch.  Thanks, but all the credit for Rick, and his personality, goes to Animeluvr1.  And there is a reason for the song of damnation being played; but you'll have to read to find out.

Naja-Thanks, I think the last chapter also established that he's not a schizophrenic.

Andivari-Good to have you back on board my friend.  And thanks.

Animeluvr1-Yes, Rick has made his grand appearance.  And my head doesn't swell that much when I get a compliment, I'm actually a pretty humble guy.  Draco coughs at that moment, sounding suspiciously like "Bullshit".  On a different note, I'd like to borrow your "Pyror Saga", though slightly modified.  I had an idea for a different type of ending to it, which would bring Bahumut into the spotlight.

Fluffy Kitsune- Oh.

"AAA"-talking

'AAA'-thought

AAA-telepathy

AAA-self debate, or conversation with feral side in Shawn and Rahne's case

Disclaimer- Piss me off, get a free bullet.  Piss my friend off, get a free bazooka shell.  Lawyers tend to piss both of us off.  It's not healthy to be a lawyer around us, you tend to wind up in small charred pieces.

Chapter 17- An Unexpected House Guest

            Shawn watched as his uncle finished hooking the trailer to his jeep.  Tom had received a phone call the night before from Old Man Kamiya, Slash's grandfather, who had been teaching classes alongside Benny, one of Tom's advanced students while the ninja was away.  As he had put it, "There's trouble brewin' back home, dude.  Hack's old man is gettin' people all riled up.  The whole town is about ready to go up, better get back here before somethin' sets it off!"  Tom had started packing almost before the phone was on the hook.

            A few of the students had gathered to see him off, including Rick, who was there to say goodbye to Mozart as well.  In a way, the coyote had provided a reminder of home for the southwestern mutant while he adjusted to his new surroundings.  Storm was there too, but Logan was at one of his usual hangouts, having a celebratory drink.  Shawn thought that doing the conga out the door had been a little over the top though.

            Tom patted the lump under the tarp on the back of his jeep that was Mozart, then turned and faced Shawn.  He held out his hand, and Shawn clasped it by the wrist.  "I guess we'll see you when the holiday's come round; either that or the next tournament."  Shawn nodded.  "Just remember… Never give up."

            "Never back down," Shawn replied.

            "And never stop fighting till the enemy hits the ground!" they chorused, finishing the ritual.  While the small gathering of people watched the strange proceedings, no one noticed a furry form slink out of the back of the jeep, leave a folded piece of paper stuck behind the wheel, and streak off towards the woods.

            As Tom climbed into the seat, Rick looked at Shawn.  "What was that all about?"

            Shawn watched his only living relative screech out the front gate, belting out the lyrics to "Born to Be Wild", before he answered.  "It's the motto of our dojo.  It's one of the first things he ever taught me," he grinned, "Well, that… and how to fill water balloons with tapioca pudding."  Rick shook his head.  He'd only met the guy two days ago and he was already wondering about his sanity.  Even so, he had made quick friends with the quirky martial artist.  Everyone turned, and began to go their separate ways.  Shawn made a gesture to Rick, Bobby and Jamie, a motion for them to meet up inside.  Unfortunately, Tabby saw, and followed at a discrete distance.  And following all of their movements was one of the Institute security cameras.  But the lens of the camera seemed to have a bluish sheen to it.

            Farther away, the white haired man in red from Cleveland perched on one of the walls.  "So this is the Institute I heard of," he mused.  His eyes narrowed suddenly as he caught sight if Kurt.  His eyes narrowed even further, and he appeared to be peering right through the blue furred boy.  He sank back, relief on his face.  "I would have hated to have had to kill someone dear to those that I wish to seek help from," he said to himself.  The way he talked to himself gave one the impression that this was a man that spent a great deal of time alone.

            Back with the guys, Shawn had gathered the four of them into a loose circle.  "Okay guys, we're gonna make our move today."  Shawn looked pointedly at Bobby.  "And I don't want to even see a poodle this time!"  Rick opened his mouth, as if to ask a question, but shut it just as quickly, shaking his head. 'I don't even want to know!' he thought.  Just as Shawn began to outline the prank that he had roped Rick into, another voice had his head shooting up in a panic as he passed the plans he had produced to Jaime, who passed them to Bobby, who passed it to Rick, who stuffed the paper under his shirt.

            "And what move would that be?"  All four of them turned to grin nervously at Tabby, who gave them a mischievous smile.  She came right up, and began to look each one of them in the eye.  "So what are you devils planning now, hmmm?"  When she got to Rick, her eyes flickered to the tell-tale bulge in his shirt, before her hand shot out and grabbed a corner of the paper that was sticking out from under his shirt.  Shawn and Rick both made a grab for it, but ended up smacking into one another instead.  Bobby made a grab for it as well, but backed off when Tabby presented him with a cherry bomb.  His hand dropped back to his side, and Tabby defused the small sphere.  Jamie, very wisely, stood back and just watched.  She scanned the sheet, then looked at Shawn and Rick, who were gingerly rubbing their heads.  "So which one of you guys came up with this gem?"  Shawn raised a hand.

            "Guilty."  Tabby handed the paper back to him before turning and walking away.  She winked at Rick as she passed him.

            "Can't wait to see how it turns out."  She called over her shoulder.  Bobby and Shawn patted a stunned Rick on the back.  He ignored them, still looking back the way that Tabby had gone, looking like he had just been whapped upside the head with a large frozen tuna.

-Beast's Lab-

            Dr. Hank McCoy worked happily at his computer terminal, talking to himself as he worked.  "Now I put this last bit of code in and…"  He stopped as the computer screen began to blink a bright yellow before returning to its original state.  Suddenly, before his eyes, the different algorithms began to rearrange themselves, several pieces of code deleting themselves and being replaced with new code.  As soon as it was done, the program began to run, just like he had told it to before the computer had developed a mind of his own.  The modified program ran perfectly, analyzing the new samples he had obtained from Shawn's full dragon form.  He had had to modify the original program he had used to analyze the boy's unique chemistry, since the original program had crashed when he had tried to run it. He had also been overjoyed to note the fact that, so far, his theory on feral mutants with alternate animal forms seemed to be holding true.

            Beast frowned and, typing in a command, stopped the program.  With a few quick keystrokes, he initiated a virus scan, trying to find out exactly what had happened to his original program.  His frown deepened when the scan turned up nothing.  He rubbed at his chin.  "Curiouser and curiouser," he mused.  He began to look over the modified algorithms, mentally checking it against the original programming.  "Hmmm, it seems that there were some flaws in my original program, but they've all been corrected.  How strange," the blue furred scientist mused, stroking his chin.

            He was so absorbed in his computers, he failed to notice one of the monitors near him jump to life, displaying the image of what appeared to be a large, armored tiger with green fur and yellow stripes.  The image appeared to be smiling, before the monitor went blank.

-The Kitchen-

            Roberto walked past the entrance to the kitchen on his way to the garage.  He paused, blinked once, and backtracked.  He craned his neck to peer into the kitchen, and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was actually seeing this.  A tall, blonde haired figure in a bomber jacket was calmly sipping a Michelob Light from Logan's stash, lizard-like tail curled loosely around his legs.  'Berto backed slowly down the hall, until he bumped into someone.  He turned around, coming face to face with Amara.  "You look like you've seen a ghost," the princess smiled.  He mutely tugged on her arm, leading her towards the kitchen.  He pointed into the room.  Amara, a puzzled look on her face, did as he bid, and peered into the room.  She looked around the room, then turned and gave the Brazilian a puzzled look.  "Is this some sort of joke?"  Roberto shoved past her as he scanned the kitchen incredulously.  Amara, shocked by his behavior, "hmph-ed" and engaged what Shawn had came to call "Princess-con one", or "Prin-con one" for short.  It was her most royally pissed attitude she had, and, unfortunately for Shawn, was a short step away from her igniting something, usually whoever had managed to piss her off, which was usually him.  Whenever she got that look on her face, he headed for the next time zone, until she cooled off.

            "B-b-b-bbut I could have sworn…" Roberto began, scratching his head as he looked about for any sign of the figure he had seen.  He turned and began to follow after the irate princess, trying to tell her, without any notable success, what he had seen.  Neither of them noticed that one of the small intercom panels that were placed throughout the Institute was flipped open, and was giving off a faint red glow before the panel seemingly closed of its own volition, leaving a low, ghostly sounding chuckle floating on the air.

-Later That Night, Institute-

            Logan staggered through the lower levels of the Institute, obviously drunk, as he was singing "Doo Wah Diddy" under his breath.  He lurched along the wall, heading towards the Danger Room.  He pressed the panel to open the door, and stopped dead in his tracks when it "whooshed" open.

            There was a large, green, tiger with yellow stripes lying on the floor, purring contentedly.  It had on several pieces of armor, though nothing that seemed to be able to hinder its movement.  "Shcuse(Excuse) me," Logan slurred, "I *hic* din know tha thish room wash ocupied."  He let the doors shut, and began to stagger on down the hall.  He stopped, frowning perplexedly, before returning to the door.  He pressed the button once again, and, once again, stopped in his tracks.

            The tiger creature was gone, and in its place, Biker, the figure Roberto had observed earlier in the kitchen, was lounging on his parked motorcycle, polishing one of his double-barreled pistols with the bandanna off of his arm.  He stopped, glanced at Logan, then returned to his polishing, idly sighting down the barrels of the gun.  "Nisch(nice) *hic* bike, wash shu(you) call it *hic*?" the Canadian slurred.  Biker never looked up from his gun.

            "Behemoth."  Logan nodded, before he turned once more, and left the premises.  He finally made it to his own room, and promptly passed out on his bed.

-Next Morning-

            Logan, looking especially hung-over, inspected the team he would be putting through the DR session today.  It consisted of Rick, Draco, Shadowcat, Wolfsbane, Wildcat, Rogue, Boom-Boom and Cannonball.  "Alright, time to see if my training's finally starting to sink into your thick teenaged skulls, or if I need to start doing more drills.  As in every other day!"  He looked at Rick, who seemed particularly nervous.  "Shaggy, I want you to find a partner, and stick to them.  The others are going to do the same in this little exercise.  It's designed to test your abilities to work as a team to defeat an enemy with powers.  Your temporary change in wardrobe is to help in this exercise."  Instead of their normal training outfits, everyone was wearing a suit that had wiring running down the legs, and along the arms, with a small backpack like attachment on the back which the wires fed into.

            "The object of this exercise is to subdue the opposing teams, by any means possible, without being taken out yourself.  That means that you can use your powers, the circuitry in these things is almost indestructible.  The suits are programmed so that, should the suit take a hit to a non-vital area, say your arm, it will freeze up and render the limb motionless.  And if you get hit in a vital area, say in the spine or stomach, the entire suit freezes for the duration of the exercise."  He gave a nasty grin, "in other words kiddies, you 'die'."

            "Separate into teams of two, move to different parts of the room, and then we'll begin," Wolverine called over his shoulder as he strode out of the room.  When he reached the observation deck, he glanced at Beast.  "They paired up yet Hank?" he asked gruffly.  The scientist nodded, sparing the DR floor a glance.  Logan took a look for himself and bit back several oaths.  The teams were:  Kitty and Rogue, Rahne and Sam, Rick and Tabby, and Shawn and Maria.  It was the last team that had him extending his claws.  Hank looked up at the noise, and followed the irate Canadian's glare, before he began to chuckle.

            "It would appear that the two of them are becoming quite attached to each other, even if both refuse to admit it," he remarked to no one in particular.

            "Just start the damn holograms before I go down there and do something I might regret!" Logan growled.  Beast nodded, and began typing.  A loud beeping from the computer terminal quickly had him frowning.  Logan looked over his shoulder.  "Something wrong Hank?"

            Dr. McCoy's voice was worried.  "Someone's locked me out of the system!" he gasped.  On the screen, a message had come up saying "Running program-SSB.  SF level selected."

            Down in the DR, Rick had been talking to Tabby.  "So how badly do you think we'll beat the others?"

            Tabby shook her head.  "I don't think it'll be us doing the beating Shaggy.  Scales and Mini-Logan are both tough customers on their own.  If they teamed up, they'll be close to impossible to beat."  As she spoke, the air around them shimmered and began to change.  Into the exterior of a gigantic spaceship!

            Rick and Tabby found themselves near the nose of the ship, along with Kitty and Rogue.  Rahne and Sam were near the tip of the fin of the ship.  Shawn and Maria had ended up on a lower level, near the engine.  Shawn began to look around in confusion.  "Somehow, I don't think this is the setting that we're supposed to be in," he said, scratching his head.  Near the nose of the ship, Rick was taking a long hard look at the new surroundings.

            "Ummm…Tabby?" he said.

            "Yeah Shaggy?"

            "Is it just me, or does this setting look familiar?" Tabby opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, when Sam shouted out a warning.

            "INCOMING!"  Everyone hit the deck (pun not intended) as a small craft zipped overhead, dispensing laser fire.  As quickly as it came, the craft was gone.

            "Like, what was that!?" Kitty asked, picking herself up off of the floor.

            "Ah don know, but ah think somethin' went horribly wrong with this exercise," Rogue drawled.  She peered upwards towards the observation deck.  "Hey Beast! What's going on up there?  You nearly fried us with that thing!"  Beast's answer over a hidden loudspeaker did very little to calm their nerves.

            "I'm not responsible for this Rogue, something else is controlling the Danger Room, and it's locked the doors, so I can't get you out.  Until I can figure out a way to get you all out of there, I would suggest sticking together and hope that this program doesn't do anything else."  As Beast finished, Shawn appeared from the lower level, winging his way to the group.  Maria was being held securely, even a bit possessively, in his arms.  Kitty, Rahne and Tabby all exchanged knowing looks.

            He landed, set Maria down, and looked at Rick.  "Is it just me, or does this hologram look like…" he began.

            "The Starfox level in Super Smash Bros.?" Rick finished.  "I'd say that that's a resounding yes."  He pointed.  The others followed his finger, and Shawn began to swear, using several words that he had picked up around the tournaments

            Coming towards them was an armored form, orange and yellow, with a medium sized laser cannon mounted on one arm.  The figures face was concealed by a green visor.  The figure stopped a distance away, and carefully aimed its cannon at the group.  "SCATTER!" Shawn yelled, shoving Maria and Rogue out of his way.  Sam blasted upwards, almost unconsciously grabbing Rahne and taking her with him, while Kitty phased down into the hull, going under the blast.  Rick, a determined look on his face, stood his ground in front of Tabby, and punched the air, aiming for the figure.  There was a peculiar noise, almost as if the air itself as being torn in two.  The air seemed to pulsate outward from his fist, racing for the enemy.  The blast seemed to be on a straight collision course with the figure, when suddenly; it lowered its cannon and curled up into a ball.  The sonic wave passed harmlessly over it.

            "Damn, I guess Samus is as tough as they say," Shawn said.  He pulled Maria and Rogue to their feet as the Samus look-alike uncurled from its position and began that slow advance once more.  Shawn jumped when Sam crashed back to earth; back first, protecting Rahne from harm.  The two got up, both of them blushing for all they were worth.  "Guys, I think that it's time for a little hardball," Shawn suggested, plugging in his earphones.  Sam and Rick moved so that they were in front of the girls, serious expressions on their faces.

            "Well," Rick said jokingly, "I always wanted to know what it was like to be in a video game."

            "Except there's no resetting this game if we lose," Sam replied in a sober voice.

            Kitty shook her head despairingly.  "Men.  Don't you like, realize that I can, like phase us all through the door.  Shawn looked over his shoulder and flashed her a fanged grin.

            "But this way is so much more fun!" he laughed.

            Up in the control room, Beast was working furiously to override the block on the system and get the students out of the DR.  Most of the other students were now present and so was Lance of all people, who had come to take Kitty on a lunch date.

            Kitty and Shawn had both asked the professor (Read: begged, pleaded and even threatened) to allow Lance to come over to the Institute, providing he notified them that he was coming first.  It had finally taken Kitty saying she would take over any and all cooking duties at the Institute, as well as Shawn saying that he could be held responsible for anything Lance started, but Lance was now allowed to visit.  The most widely held view was that the threat of Kitty's cooking had been the deciding factor in this decision, since no one had taken her up on the offer.

            "Isn't there some way to get them out of there?" Lance asked.  Logan growled at him.

            "For the twentieth time in as many seconds Rock Head, NO!  We're trying our best and we should have them out soon."  As he spoke, Beast gave a triumphant "AH-HA!"  Logan turned and looked at the scientist.  "You got something Hank?"

            "I believe that I've found the problem.  A Trojan horse program that seems to have tied in directly to the hologram system.  I'm exposing it right…now!"  As Beast said now, two things happened.

            One, the hologram of the ship disappeared, revealing that the floor had merely shifted around so that there was a large hill, which had been the fin of the ship.

            Two, the form of Samus seemed to blur, and then stretch, as the orange turned to green, except for small portions of the body, and the yellow separated and lengthened into stripes.  When it was done, the tiger Logan had seen last night was standing there instead.  It seemed to look around, suddenly unsure of itself before giving a soft growl and beginning to back away from the mutants.  Everyone who was seeing this was frozen in shock.  "Scratch?" Shawn whispered.

            The tiger, Scratch, turned and began running full tilt towards the small drone jet that had masqueraded as a starfighter during the hologram and leapt towards it.  In mid-leap, he seemed to explode into yellow sparkles, which were absorbed by the drone's infrared eye, which it used to receive and send data during training exercises.

            "Ummm…I wasn't the only one who saw that, was I?" Lance asked.

            "That depends, did you see a big green tiger with yellow stripes just get absorbed into that drone?" Scott asked.  Lance nodded.  "Then yeah, we all saw it."  As the two of them spoke what were perhaps the first, and possibly only, non-threatening words to each other they had ever spoken, Beast had began typing furiously on his console.

            "Hank, what are you doing?" The professor asked.

            "Following its data trail.  That thing was the Trojan horse that began this entire…" he trailed off as he saw where the program had stopped.  He looked at Xavier.  "Charles, that program came from Cerebro!"

            "And I think I know who put it there and how to get it out," Shawn said from the entrance.  He and the others had exited the DR post hast, and were now entering the observation deck.  "All I need to do it is for Cerebro to be cut off from the rest of the mansions systems and the internet, and access to Cerebro's main console.  If this is who I think it is, then I already have the necessary program to stop it."  Everyone just stared at him.  Logan was the first to voice what everyone else was thinking.

            "What the hell do you know about computers Scales?"  Shawn just looked at him.

            "Enough.  I'll be right back with the disk that I'll need."  With that he turned and sprinted down the hall towards the elevator.  Logan and Hank looked to the professor, as did most of the students.

            "Charles?" Beast asked.  Xavier sighed.

            "He seems to know what this is, but Hank, you and I will supervise this scheme of his."  He looked at the assembled students.  "Until further notice, all Danger Room sessions are cancelled.  I would appreciate it if you all found something to do outside for the remainder of the day."  Rousing cheers greeted this announcement.  "However, there will still be sessions held outdoors should it take more than a day to fix this problem."  Everyone's face fell, except for Logan's, before everyone went there own ways.  Shawn came back a few seconds later, holding a disk in one hand.

            "Got it!"  Beast nodded from his keyboard.

            "And I just finished isolating Cerebro.  Just follow me to the mainframe console."  Shawn followed after the scientist and the professor.  Beast took a look at the disk in Shawn's hand.  It was nothing special, just a blank disk.  "What exactly will this program do?"

            "If I'm right, it'll drive the problem right out of Cerebro."  Shawn replied confidently.

            "Will it have any effects on Cerebro's programming?"  The professor asked.

            "Absolutely no effect at all."  Xavier nodded, and pressed a button on his chair, opening the door in front of them.  Inside, was the Cerebro console.  Shawn strode up to it, and ignoring the helmet, opened the disk drive and slid the CD into the drive.  He closed the drive and waited for a moment.  A small window popped up, asking what to do with the disk.  Instead of selecting run program, he told it to run it as an audio disk.

            "This is an audio program?!" Beast exclaimed.  Shawn nodded, and pulled out three pairs of earplugs.

            "Trust me, you'll want these," he said, plugging his ears with one pair.  Beast and Xavier dubiously took a pair each.  As soon as they had stopped up their own ears, Shawn hit a final key on the board, starting the program.  A song began to waft from the speakers.

            I love you…

            You love me…

            Before the song could go any further, the screen of the console began to glow a bright vibrant blue.  Suddenly, a form erupted from the screen, landing solidly on his feet in front of Shawn, who had backed away from the screen expectantly.  Hack was clutching at his ears, a look of pure horror and pain spread across his features.

            "Turn it off!" he shouted, "For the love of God; turn! It! OFF!"  Shawn calmly reached around the boy and clicked the mouse, stopping the song.  Hack uncovered his ears, and looked around, his eyes locking on Shawn, who had a waiting look on his face.  He was tapping his foot expectantly, arms crossed.  Beast and Xavier were still attempting to comprehend what had just happened.  Hack gave a wry chuckle and scratched the back of his head.

            "Heh, hey boss, how ya been?"

            "Hack, I want you to pull anybody you let loose in there out of the mansion's systems.  Then we'll talk about how I've been."  Hack sighed, and turned towards the intercom that was set into the wall of the room.

            "Biker, Scratch, come on out guys, the jig is up."  The intercom began to glow a combination of red and yellow, before two figures, one enshrouded in yellow light, the other in red.  The glow faded to reveal Biker and Scratch, both of whom looked a little guilty.  "You know the drill guys," Hack said.  He snapped his fingers, and the two of them erupted into small particles of red and yellow light.  The particles came together in Hack's outstretched hands as small orbs, each one a little larger than a large grape.

            "I believe that the two of you have a bit of explaining to do," Beast managed to stutter.

-A rest Stop Near the New York Border-

            Tom stopped his jeep, and got out to stretch his legs.  As he moved, he caught sight of the note Mozart had left behind when he had jumped ship.  He reached down and plucked the paper from it's place.  He read it, and smiled.  "Keep those kids on their toes bud," he said to himself.

            Here's what the note said.  "Dear Tom, when you find this, you'll be well away from the Institute.  I've decided to stay behind in Bayville.  I've found a few reasons to stick around, and keep myself busy, from things I've heard and seen around town.  I'll keep in touch."  It was signed with a pawprint.

---To Be Continued---

Well, there ya go.  More info on Hack's background and powers next chapter, plus we find out what Mozart meant in his note to Tom about finding "a reason to stick around".  Until then, Read & Review