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"This isn't fair." Bobby moaned. "The girls get to have the Mansion all to themselves while we have to rough it out here in the wilderness!"

"Bobby, we're twenty minutes from the Mansion." Sam sighed. "And we're hardly roughing it."

"Quiet! I can't get my portable TV to work!" Fred snapped.

"Anyone want smores?" Pyro asked. "Because I was about to—"

"Get away from the fire!" Everyone shouted at him.

"Fine! I can take a hint!"

"Since when?" Bobby scoffed.

"Where are the adults?" Xi asked.

"They had to drive Hank into town so he could go to the bathroom. Apparently he can't bring himself to go outdoors." Kurt answered. "I think the others went with him for a beer run."

"That's kind of ironic." Pietro snerked. "A big hairy man can't bring himself to go outdoors. What kind of man does that?"

"This from the guy who wears more makeup than all of the girls put together." Roberto pointed out.

"He's got a point." Lance admitted as he toasted a marshmallow over the campfire. Fred sat across from him with a tree branch covered in marshmallows. "Fred!"

"What? I'm hungry!"

"Someone alert the media." Remy said sarcastically.

"They'll have to alert the paramedics if you don't pipe down!" Shane warned from his sleeping bag. "I hate the outdoors! I'm from L.A.!"

"I'm from T.A. Tel Aviv." Gilaad sighed. "I never cared much for camping either."

"Me either." Doug gulped as he peeked out of his sleeping bag and looked around. "You don't think there are any wild animals out here in the woods, do you?"

"Why no, I expect the woods are full of nice domestic animals." Jesse groaned. "Doug you really are a wuss!"

"This from the kid who shorts out all the lights whenever someone says boo." Ray snickered.

"We already have a toad, a lizard, an albino hummingbird, an elephant, and a dragon with us." Tim noted as he pointed at Todd, Xi, Pietro, Fred, and Lockheed. "What're a few more dumb animals going to do? YEOWCH!" He yelped as Lockheed breathed flame at his backside.

"Are all your gatherings like this?" Gilaad asked.

"Oh yeah." Sam sighed. "Definitely."

"Who wants to here some ghost stories?" Todd asked as he leaped up and down on his sleeping bag, occasionally snagging a bug attracted to the camp fire out of the airs. "I want to hear some ghost stories!"

"You're going to be a ghost if you don't quit it!" Scott growled.

"Story! Story! Story!" Todd, Xi, Fred, Pietro, and Jamie chanted.

"Oh for the love of…" Lance groaned. "Fine! Here's a story! Once upon a time there were some idiots. They got eaten by wolves and became ghosts. The end!"

"I want a real story!" Todd whined.

"Ghost stories are lame." Everett said. "Except when Dead Girl tells them, and even then it's more like listening to a biography than a story."

"Wouldn't it be cool to meet a real ghost?" Jamie asked.

"Well one time, my Great Uncle…" Fred started.

"No! The Blob's stories are scarier than any ghost story." Remy groaned.

"Tell it! Tell it!" Todd exclaimed. Fred cleared his throat.

"Well, before I was born, my Great Uncle Robert Dukes used to love crawling into boxes when he was a boy. Not the brightest bulb in the family, he often got himself locked into crates or shipped to the post office. Bet he loved it. But one day one neighbor who got sick of having Uncle Robert burst out of his crates locked him in a box and shipped him to Abu Dhabi. No one ever saw him again."

"But my Grandma told me that if you say his name three times and think about boxes, Uncle Robert's ghost will appear!"

"If thinking is required then I guess there's no point in asking if anyone in your family has actually ever seen him." Pietro snorted.

"Let's give it a try!" Todd said.

"This is lame!" Tim groaned.

"Maybe but if it makes Todd calm down for a while, I'll do it." Lance sighed as everyone started holding hands.

"Now, say Uncle Robert's name three times—" Fred reminded everyone. "And think of boxes!"

"Robert Dukes. Robert Dukes. Robert Dukes." Everyone repeated three times. Everyone looked around. Nothing.

"Well, I feel ridiculous." Remy announced as he let go. "Let's just go to bed and ahhhh—" He screamed as he saw a blue ghost hovering before him.

"Beware!" A dimwitted, heavy-set ghost in coveralls and a cap said as he waved his arms in what was supposed to be a frightening gesture. Key words: Supposed to. "I am the Box Ghost! Beware!"

"IEEEEEE!" Pietro shrieked. "It's a ghost!"

"Uncle Robert?" Fred blinked.

"Get him!" Scott said as he fired an optic blast at—rather, through—the Box Ghost and felled a tree.

"After him!" Gambit shouted as he charged up a card and threw it.

As the adults returned in the X-Van, they were confronted with an impossible sight. Half the boys were chasing a floating blue ghost and vainly trying to blast him and only succeeded in starting a few fires and knocking down some trees. The other half buried themselves in their sleeping bags.

"I do believe in ghosts! I do believe in ghosts! I do! I do!" Doug screamed as he cowered inside his sleeping bag.

"I'd ask what was going on, but I don't really want to know." Xavier groaned.

"All in favor of getting back in the van and getting drunk say aye." Shipwreck proposed.

"AYE!" The adults agreed unanimously. As they climbed back into the van they heard a whistling sound that seemed to grow louder and louder.

"What is that?" Warren asked as he poked his head out of the window and looked up. The others followed suit.

"It looks like a…giant ball of sleeping bags?" Logan asked in disbelief as it fell closer and closer.

"Yipes." Hank winced.

"This is going to hurt." Spirit groaned as the ball landed on them.

"Beware!" The Box Ghost shouted as he flew through the night. "Beware!"

&&&