Take the Long Way Home

Hey folks, chapter 26! And since my muses are working overtime, we're heading straight into the story, after the obligatory review replies of course.

X00001-Hey, thanks man. I like to think that writing is just like everything else. The more you practice it, the better you get at it.

Rosethorn- Ahhh, that explains it. About the whole "Chicks Dig It" question, I don't really know any girls that listen to country music, so I had to draw my own opinions on how girls would react to the song.

Fluffy's numba 1 gal- Ummm, I take the fifth? Oh, okay. Well, he's seen a lot of stuff, so naturally he'll have matured a little bit. Keyword there, little.

Moezy-Chan- will do. And when are you going to update your stories? I wanna find out what happens in those just as bad as you wanna find out what happens in mine.

Animeluvr1-Sorry, I forgot to put Rick's idea in. But it will be in this chapter, promise!

Raliena- You're welcome.

L1701E-Well, you wanted to know who's getting taken? Here it is. And Magneto's gonna end up with a two for one deal he'll regret for a lifetime!

Andivari- Ahh, I understand muses being stubborn. Glares at Vegeta, who is sitting back in a Hawaiian shirt, sipping a Pina colada

LW-Yeah, it would have, but I figured "Another One Bites the Dust" was more Dante's style. Well…I wouldn't say best author on the site, but I like to think I'm pretty good.

AzureDragoness-Snaps fingers DAMN! I was sure that you would take the brat off my hands! Ah yes, fluff and insanity. Even a guy like me can appreciate those two factors, especially the insanity. Did I detect a challenge in that PS? Who have you got for your muses anyway? And speaking of muses, I've brought in another freelancer fight muse, since the monkey prince isn't working as hard as he should be. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME YOU BAKA $#%!!!" Please put your hands, claws, whatever you've got, together for… BLACKWARGREYMON!!!! The intimidating dark warrior just nods before he retires to the muse room. Apparently he's a muse of few words.

Alleycat588-Yes, Logan singing that song. He'll probably deny it when he's sober, but that's what security cameras are for. Yeah, sweet dreams for Toad. Well, lets find out who Buckethead set his twisted sights on.

KyLewin-Dang, it didn't work then! Using the karaoke as an excuse to get the guys kisses; what an imagination! Does shifty eyes

Warconq- Heh, you and your co-workers are very welcome. Comedy is a truly great weapon and I wield it with pride. I like to think that giving people something to laugh at is just a small civil service I provide.

-AAA- Translation

AAA-telepathy

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

Disclaimer- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, to them you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Chapter 26- Party Crashers

"Man, that was nuts!" Rick 'Rictor' Carter said, flinging himself into a chair. Shawn O'Reily, his roommate and friend, sat in another chair nearby and leaned back, stretching. The rest of the guests for his birthday party were scattered throughout the backyard. A few were over by the snacks, where Storm and Raven were dishing out cake. Shawn looked around suddenly.

"Hey, where's Todd?" Rick sat up as well and looked around. Todd was nowhere in sight.

"We better go find him before he gets in trouble." The two nodded and got up, passing by a passed out Wolverine. After his big solo, the feral had teetered on his feet for a moment before hitting the floor. Dante and Coyote had dragged him over to the side, and were now immersed in their bottles once again. Raven and Storm had attempted to confiscate them, but once Dante had shown them exactly how fast a draw he was with his pistols, the two women had agreed to let the two drink themselves into insensibility before trying to take their precious liquor.

As Rick and Shawn made their way into the mansion, Shawn suddenly cocked his head to the side. He nudged Rick in the ribs. "Hey, you hear that?" Rick paused for a moment, then he faintly heard the sounds of drums coming from further in the mansion. The two began to follow the sounds, which got louder as they progressed.

"Whoever it is, they're not half bad," Rick commented after a particularly good bit. Eventually, the two came to a stop in front of a door leading to a storage room. "Hey, isn't this where you and your uncle stored that drum set Hack left you?" Rick asked. Shawn nodded. When Rick had first arrived, he had heard Shawn and Sam discussing the possibility of bringing the set out of storage, if for nothing else than to mess around on it sometimes. He opened the door. Their jaws dropped at the sight that greeted them. Todd was seated at the now assembled drum set, eyes closed as he played. He was playing so fast the drumsticks seemed to be smoking. As they looked on, an idea began to form in Rick's mind. Suddenly, with a final flourish of the sticks, Toad stopped playing, his eyes still closed. They shot open as his previously unknown audience began to applaud.

Back outside, the party was in full swing. Even Maria had let her guard down somewhat and was enjoying herself. Jamie and his clone army had finally come down off their sugar high, and were stretched out on the lawn, with a worn out Razor sleeping next to the original Jamie, a scrap of Pietro's pants between his teeth. The speedster in question had collapsed on the back porch, out cold. No one seemed to notice the dark shadow that crept over the Institute wall, before cloaking itself in the shadows.

Thanatos chuckled to himself as he watched the party. 'Idiots,' he thought, as he pulled a small pouch from his cloak. He took a small greenish pill out and began searching for a target. He smiled as he saw Maria, Kitty and Rogue set down their cans of pop. Quickly pulling two more pills from the pouch, he took careful aim, and tossed them towards the cans. Each pill landed perfectly in a separate can and began to dissolve rapidly in the carbonated liquid. Within not even two seconds, they had dissolved completely. Thanatos gave a dark chuckle before moving off to find more targets. The more drinks he drugged, the less resistance when Magneto appeared.

Back inside, Shawn and Rick were firing questions rapid-fire at Todd. "How'd you learn to play the drums?"

"How long have you been playing?"

Toad held his hands up to try and stem the tide of questions, but not before Rick launched one final salvo.

"Would you be able to play in a band?" Shawn and Todd both looked at him at that one.

"Something's cooking in that space between your ears again, isn't there?" Shawn asked. Rick nodded.

"Well, I've been turning the idea of forming a band over in the back of my mind, but I didn't know where to find a drummer." He looked at Toad like he was a godsend. "So," he said to Todd, "How did you learn to play the drums?"

Todd shrugged. "When I was living on the streets in New York, before Mystique found me, I used to hang around this music shop. The owner was blind yo, and he needed help around the place sometimes, basic stuff like inventory and setting up some of the instruments. In return for my help he'd give me a meal sometimes, and he taught me how to play the drums yo. He said I was a natural." As Todd finished his story, Rick nodded.

"He was right. You're really GOOD!!!" He looked around. "So are you two interested?" Todd and Shawn looked at each other for a moment.

"Who else were you considering asking," Shawn asked.

"Lance, Roberto, and a few others. Soooo…" Rick shot a questioning look at them, "Whadda ya say?" Shawn and Todd looked at each other, then looked back at Rick.

We're in!" they chorused. Rick nodded, and offered his hand. The other two took it, one after the other.

"Here's hoping that we can manage to get this off the ground." Shawn and Todd nodded, before the three of them left the storage room to get back to the party.

"Well," Shawn said as they went, "I've managed to find a new home for Hack's drums. Now I just need to find a home for Slash's stuff."

-Bayville Sewers, The Morlock Tunnels-

Sebastian Kamiya twitched as he slept, coming into a sort of half-doze. He vaguely felt something rubbing his ears. He distantly felt himself start to growl lowly in pleasure. A sudden thought had his eyes snapping open and his low purr of pleasure turning into a snarl. 'Somebody's touching MY EARS!!!' He attempted to rush forward and rip the offender's arm off, but found himself restrained by some sort of rope. He stopped suddenly as he heard Shippo's voice.

"I told you he didn't like people touching his ears," the Kitsune said matter-of-factly. The person in front of him shrugged, after backing off a little from the enraged mutant.

"But they're soooooooo cute!!" she squealed, revealing herself as a girl. Slash, after calming down a moment, took a closer look at her, and regretted his initial rage. She was kinda cute. She was about five foot four, with light brown hair, streaked with light green. She had mischievous green eyes and a rather generous figure as well. "Hi," she waved, "I'm Thorn."

"Sebastian, but I prefer Slash." Slash suddenly noticed that he was tied down with what appeared to be some sort of plant roots. "AND WHY THE HELL am I tied up!!!" A shadow moved into the light, revealing itself as a medium sized, humanoid…rat?!?!

"Merely a precaution, until my superior arrives. I am Capybara." Shippo, who had been silent up until then, spoke up.

"The world's largest rodent?" he nodded, "makes sense. But aside from that, who exactly are you, and why have you restrained us?" As he finished speaking, a rhythmic clanking sound approached the group. Shippo and Slash's ears swiveled to lock in on the sound, while Capybara and Thorn relaxed slightly.

"Ah here is the third member of our little clique," the humanoid rodent said, gesturing into the darkness. Slash and Shippo, with their superior vision, were able to just barely make out a four legged shape coming into view, a flash of gold coloring visible here and there. Red optics were the next thing they made out. Finally, the figure came into view, and Slash let off an impressed whistle.

"A Shadowfox. Impressive." Shippo was grinning ear to ear.

"Nice," Was the only thing he said. The mechanized fox was about four feet high at the shoulder, four and a half if you included the Vulcan gun mounted on it's back.

"Exo, I assume that Calisto is right behind you?" Capybara asked. The mech nodded, before it became engulfed by a strange, steel-gray cloud. After a few seconds, in which sounds like metal coming apart at the seams emanated from the strange cloud, it disappeared, leaving behind a boy in tattered overalls and a plain white T-shirt, as worn as the overalls. He had brown hair that seemed to sweep back on it's own, making him look somewhat like the wolf-man, and hazel-green eyes. He didn't appear to be much older than twelve, and was just under five feet tall.

"Yeah Cappy, she's comin'. She's bringing Caliban with her too, somethin' about him not telling her about the second mutant traveling the tunnels." Shippo's ears perked up at this bit of information.

"You have someone among you that can detect other mutants?" Cappy glared at the fox.

"Yes, what of it?" Slash answered for his teacher.

"He's just gets really curious about stuff he's never heard about before. On a different note…how 'bout cutting us loose. I don't bite, and I'm pretty sure we've both had all our shots." As he said this, he tried to smile disarmingly. Pretty hard when you've got fangs. Thorn shot a look at Cappy, who shook his whiskered head.

"Not until Calisto has talked to them and judged whether or not they're dangerous." Thorn turned back to Slash and gave him an apologetic shrug. The boy sighed, and twisted a little in his bonds. He looked over at his sensei, who appeared perfectly comfortable. Then his eyes narrowed a fraction. Shippo's hands were free!!! He locked eyes with his teacher, who gave him a friendly wink, followed by a minute shake of his head. Slash nodded imperceptibly, and settled back. He looked over at Exo, and, resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't going anywhere soon, decided that he might as well try and get to know the boy.

"So," he said conversationally, "you like Zoids?" The boy's face brightened and the two began to debate which type of Zoid was best in certain situations. If there was one thing besides eating and fighting that Slash loved, it was anime. The boy was an Otaku and proud of it!

-The Institute-

When Shawn and his friends got to the backyard, they stopped in shock. Most of the partygoers were stretched out on the lawn, passed out. The only ones left awake were Dante, Coyote and Lance, who was frantically trying to wake up a slumped over Kitty. "C'mon, wake up!!" he pleaded, shaking her gently. Shawn, Rick and Todd rushed to their respective love interests and began to attempt to wake them as well. Shawn checked for Maria's pulse, and sighed in relief when he found it, strong as ever.

"Maria seems okay, her pulse and breathing are strong and steady," he called to the others. He settled his girlfriend into a comfortable position, and began to move from person to person, checking their vitals. He noticed that a few still had cups or plates in their hands. All of them were the same, no serious problems, just unconscious. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a white powder, nearly invisible against the white icing on the half-eaten piece of cake that was still in Freddy's hands. Rick looked up from where he was now checking on Beast.

"They're all out cold!" he yelled to the others. A dark chuckle from one of the trees had their heads turning. Thanatos dropped to the ground, his robes seeming to pool around him like shadows. The boys immediately tensed, Shawn, Todd and Lance dropping into fighting crouches, while Rick tensed his arms. The disfigured fighter just chuckles again.

"Of course they're out cold, that's what knockout drugs are supposed to do," he laughed. Shawn scowls and steps to the front, leaving an opening for Rick and Toad to fire through if the man attempted to attack.

"What do you want Thanatos?" He looked at Shawn, his eyes bright with dark mirth.

"Oh it's not what I want," As he spoke, Colossus, Sabretooth, Pyro and Gambit appeared from the direction of the east wall, while Magneto appeared overhead, with three of his transport spheres tagging along behind him. "Thanatos pointed upwards to Magneto, "It's what he wants!"

"I'll take death-breath, you guys take the others. GO!" Shawn launched forward in an attack on Thanatos, sweeping his staff out of his hands with a well placed karate chop and following that up with a kick to the stomach. Thanatos grunted, but didn't attack. Instead he looked to Magneto. The white haired mutant nodded, and Thanatos suddenly leapt to the attack, lashing out at Shawn with a low kick. Shawn defended, and the two began to exchange blows at a furious pace.

Meanwhile, Lance had squared off against Gambit. "I assume that you're doing this under protest?" Lance asked, as he saw Gambit shoot a worried look towards Rogue, who was slumped in a lawn chair. Gambit locked eyes with his poker buddy and nodded.

"Then I'll make this look tough." As Lance spoke, the earth behind Gambit rose up, and formed into an open hand. It made a grab at the Cajun, but he dodged, quickly charging and throwing a card. The hand closed around it and exploded. Gambit turned to face Lance, but stopped when he saw the smirk on the younger man's face. "That was just a distraction," Avalanche said, pointing down. Gambit looked down, and found that, while he had been recovering, small tendrils of earth had reached up and wrapped themselves around his feet and legs loosely. Suddenly they drew tight, and Gambit found himself effectively immobilized.

"Dat's a good move mon ami, but not good enough." Gambit drew a card and charged it for a few seconds, before wedging it between two of the tendrils. The explosion was small enough that it didn't injure the thief, but it was powerful enough to free one leg, and allow him to free the other leg. He extended his Bo and twirled it experimentally. "Round two."

Meanwhile, Rick and Toad were extremely nervous. They were facing some pretty powerful odds. Four to one, with three of the Acolyte's more powerful members, and the bossman himself. Magneto gestured, and Sabretooth and Colossus advanced on the two. Pyro however, slipped off to the side, and made his way over to Amara, who was beginning to stir. "'Ello there sheila." He said, as she opened up her eyes.

"Wh-who are you?" she croaked. He gave a small grin as he produced his lighter. He flicked it into life, and formed a rose out of flame, which he presented to her.

"St. John Allerdyce. And you must be an angel that fell from heaven sheila." Amara looked at him like he was crazy, but didn't protest as he helped her into a sitting position. She was still weak from the drugs Thanatos had put into her drink, but the her iternal body temperature was burning them away, so she was recovering faster than everyone else. "Need anythin' Sheila?" John asked. She shook her head, her eyes wide as she watched Shawn and Thanatos pass by, a flurry of fists and feet.

Back with Toad and Rick, the two were panting heavily. So far they had avoided taking any major hits from the duo, but they exhausted from dodging so much. Rick had attempted to knock them out with his concussive blasts, but Sabretooth had been able to dodge them, and Colossus had merely gotten up after being knocked down. Sabretooth tried to charge the two boys and catch them off guard, but his charge was cut short by Dante's arm coming out of nowhere and clothslining the feral to the ground.

"I don' think tha tha's shuch a good idea," he slurred. He and Coyote, finally noticing the fight, had gotten up and advanced on the two Acolytes undetected. Coyote stood next to the half-demon, swaying slightly. Sabretooth wrinkled his nose as he got a whiff of the pair. 'They smell like a distillery!' he thought. Suddenly Coyote looked at Dante.

"Hey Dante, how bout showin' me the proper way to throw a punch?" Dante smirked and walked up to the still slightly stunned Sabretooth. The feral shook his head and grinned. 'Might as well toy with the poor bastard before I kill him' he thought. The feral held still and let the demonstration commence.

"It's easy. First, roll your hand into a fist." Which he did. "Then, raise your arm level with you head, pull back, and assert yourself." POW!!! Sabretooth was out of this fight. Apparently he had underestimated a demon strength fueled punch. Coyote nodded.

"Hey let me try!" The spirit advanced on Colossus, and punched the huge Russian in the face "AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!" While Colossus was still in his armored form. Coyote immediately stuck his hand in his mouth and began to suck on it, mumbling curses under his breath the entire time.

Up in the air, Magneto sighed and rubbed the bridge if his nose. "If you want something done..." he sighed. He gestured, and one of the orbs floating serenely beside him traveled down to the ground, hovering behind Rick. The western mutant, after throwing a sonic punch in Colossus's direction, turned once he heard the slight humming noise coming off of the orb.

"The hell?" he muttered.

Suddenly, a port in the side of the sphere opened up, and three metal tentacles snaked out. Lightning fast, they whipped around his body, pinning his arms at his sides. He struggled vainly as the tentacles began to reel him in.

Shawn, seeing Rick's plight from his fight with Thanatos, panicked. "Hold on!" He yelled. He kicked Thanatos away and used the zanzoken to get to his roomates side faster, leaving the mercenary punching through an afterimage and falling to the ground. He grabbed on to Rick's legs and began to pull, trying with all his might to pull his friend free.

Instead he was caught by some of the tentacles and was pulled along with his friend into the orb. Magneto noded with satisfaction, and gestured with both hands. The orb containing the two X-men rose into the air, while the other two descended. They opened as well, and sprouted tentacles that nabbed the Acolytes, none to gently I might add, before rising into the air to hover alongside Magneto. As Pyro was picked up, he gave a cheery wave to Amara, who was watching in stunned silence. "See ya later love!" he yelled. Dante snarled and drew his pistols, aiming for Magneto.

"Eat hot lead, bitch!" he snarled. Coyote grabbed his arm as he fired, knocking his shots awry. Dante turned on him. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" he yelled. Coyote knocked on his forehead.

"Hellloooo, think about it. If you shoot him, those pods crash. And I don't think they have seatbelts and airbags in them." Magneto laughed.

"Please tell my dear friend Charles that two of his students have decided to transfer their loyalties to me." With that, he flew off, the orbs trailing behind him.

Inside their orb, Shawn and Rick were struggling vainly against the tentacles that held them. Ricks eyes were rolling in his head, and he was beginning to hyperventilate. "Gottagetoutgottagetoutgottagetout," he chanted at a hyper fast speed. Shawn would have tried to calm his friend, if he hadn't been so preoccupied with escaping from his bonds. Suddenly, here was a hissing sound, and a purplish gas. Both boy's eyes rolled into the back of their heads as the gas knocked them out. Silenly, the orb followed it's master towards his secret base, and the fate he had intended for them.

---To Be Continued---

Well, those two are in a world of trouble, I can tell you that right now. What'll happen when they arrive at their destination? Find out next time. Until then, Read & Review, and any suggestions are welcome!