&&&

Rahne and Tabitha stared upwards, mouths agape at the sight of the Dinosaucers. The Misfits couldn't resist a smile at their expressions. A large brown, allosaurus-type Dinosaucer knelt down next to them.

"Hello, my name is Allo. Leader of the Dinosaucers. Welcome to LavaDome."

Rahne idly felt her jaw drop as she stared into the large, tooth-filled mouth of Allo as he kneeled down and gave what was supposed to be a warm, friendly smile.

"Why didn't you warn me that we were meeting a bunch of alien dinosaur-men?" Rahne whispered to Althea with an edge in her voice.

"Just to see the look on your face; you great nosey-body." Althea snorted in amusement.

"Who're they?" Justin asked, pointing at Rahne and Tabby. One Dinosaucer, who looked like a giant stegosaurus nodded.

"I don't remember seeing them the last time you were here. You did promise not to tell anyone about us." He reminded them.

"We haven't forgotten Steggo." Althea sighed. "Rahne and Tabby are temporary members of the Misfits. Sort of an exchange program we have with the X-Men. You might've noticed that Lina's not here."

"That's too bad." Teryx, a female Dinosaucer archaeopteryx sighed. "She had such lovely wings, and it's nice to have company when going for a flight."

"Wait, the X-Men?" Bonehead, another Dinosaucer asked. "You mean those "X-Geeks" you called a bunch of up-tight, arrogant preppy-jerks who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag?" He asked.

Rahne and Tabitha looked nonplussed at the Misfits.

"Er…heh heh, shut up Bonehead…" Todd hissed at him.

"Um, let's get down to business! Why do you need us?" Althea asked hurriedly. The Dinosaucer's friendly expressions took on a worried look.

"You better come inside." Allo sighed. "It's not good." Rahne and Tabitha couldn't stop being amazed by the Dinosaucers' headquarters inside the mountain, called LavaDome.

"So you've been living here on Earth secretly for over twenty years?" Tabitha asked Bronto Thunder, another Dinosaucer. That clicked a memory in Rahne.

"Wait a minute…" She whirled on the Misfits. "I remember now! After Catseye and I got back from Disneyland (See "Mischief Incorporated") and Optimus Prime showed up…Shipwreck started to say something about them, didn't he?"

Althea smacked her forehead with her palm. "He never could keep his mouth shut." She muttered in annoyance. "But yeah. Since the Dinosaucers haven't caused any trouble GI Joe's left them alone."

"And a good thing too." Allo said under his breath. Althea explained to Rahne quietly.

"Allo didn't take to the Blind Master last time they met and the feeling's more than mutual. Mostly because of their argument over Justin joining us."

"Obviously, Allo won." Rahne observed.

"Yeah. I sometimes wonder what it would've been like if he'd joined us but—" Althea's musings were cut off as Allo showed them to the Dinosaucers' main computer console.

"The problem started about two days ago." Allo said. "When we lost contact with our homeworld, Reptilon."

"At first we thought it was a communications or equipment failure…but after a day or so we sent out a shuttle to investigate." Tricero told the Misfits.

"What did you find?" Xi queried.

"Nothing," Allo said hollowly.

"So what was the problem?" Fred asked in confusion.

"Nothing." Allo repeated. "Absolutely nothing."

"We were where we ought to be…" Teryx choked, trying not to cry. "But Repitlon's gone. The whole planet is gone!"

&&&

"Don't make me turn this plane around!" Scott shouted at Amira and Gilaad as they continued beating the tar out of each other. "If I do then it's double, no—triple Danger Room exercises for the both of you! I—" He stopped mid-tirade as a warning light started to blink. "Looks like we've got company," Scott murmured, his early anger forgotten. "But I filed a flight plan!"

"Who's following us?" Jean asked him. Gilaad and Amira—their fight temporarily forgotten—leaned over Scott's shoulder and looked at the radar.

"F-16s." They said in unison.

"How do you know?" Scott asked Amira. She pointed to Scott and then to Gilaad.

"Because your people sell them to his people in order to kill my people." She explained flatly.

Any further unpleasantries were prevented when one of the three jets following them, WOOSHED past, knocking everyone in the X-Jet to one side.

"Hey!" Scott shouted as he turned on the radio. "This is the X-Jet, we have clearance to fly here, who are you?" There was no verbal answer, but the jets made their opinion known anyway as they opened fire on the X-Jet.

"They're shooting at us!" Scott exclaimed as he banked the jet to the right.

"Thanks for the update!" Remy snapped at him.

"Jean! Try to see who's in those things!" Scott said as he banked the jet again, to dodge another volley.

Jean shut her eyes and concentrated on the pilots of the three jets. Then she gasped and opened her eyes. "There aren't any pilots!"

"But no remote controlled plane could respond to our movements so quickly." Scott grimaced as he swerved the jet. Suddenly a black F-16 materialized in front of them, weapons blazing.

"That jet used to be behind us, how'd it get there?" Scott yelled as bright energy blasts narrowly missed the cockpit, leaving black scoring marks along the length of the jet.

"It teleported!" Jean gasped.

"Hey that's my shtick!" Kurt said indignantly.

"Something strange is going on." Kitty said. "I mean, like besides us getting shot at."

"Which really isn't all that strange." Rogue drawled.

As the X-Jet turned about to avoid the jet ahead of them, a red and silver jet caught up with them. Before the amazed eyes of the X-Men, it unfolded into a giant robot with blazing the purple sigil of the Decepticons.

"Uh-oh." Gilaad winced. "That ain't good."

Starscream, Air Commander of the Decepticons smiled cruelly as he leveled his null-ray at the X-Jet. "Say good-bye fleshbags!" At point blank range it was impossible to miss.

"That shot took out all our electronics!" Scott shouted as the jet started to shut down.

"We're going to crash!" Bobby wailed.

"Not if I can help it!" Scott shouted as he wrestled with the controls. After a moment he stopped. "Oh…I guess I can't."

"We're out of control!" Peter shouted as the jet plummeted down towards the ground. As the ground rushed up to meet the X-Men, they could do nothing but stare in horror and amazement.

"Oh…shit." Amira gulped.

&&&