Key:

"Talking in common language" ((Japanese or English, depending on where it is))

'Thinking'

"-Talking in uncommon language-" ((Japanese or English around people that don't know the language spoken))

"Makai"

Telekinesis ((Jean and Professor))

-Hiei's Telekinesis-

Kurama arguing with himself:

'Suuichi'

'Youko'

Chapter 15: Picnic on a Stormy Day

"What were you three thinking?" Genkai asked the three boys. "You could have endangered mutants. How would people feel if they saw three boys and a huge phoenix flying through the air?" Then to the to semi-saiyans, she said, "-Meet with me later and you can discuss with me what you saw-."

"We were just having a simple picnic," Gohan defended, "And besides, we stayed above the area that the school occupies. No one else would have seen us." 'Also, we needed to take a quick look over the surrounding area,' he thought to himself.

Flashback:

"I'm hungry," Kurt complained as his stomach growled once again.

"Me too," Gohan added.

"The weather is perfect for…what do you call those things where you actually eat outside peacefully… oh yeah a picnic," Trunks said, "It is about eighty degrees, and though it is a little humid, it should be fine. I see no clouds."

"Have you ever had a picnic?" asked Kurt when he noticed that Trunks seemed to have very little knowledge about it.

"I grew up in a place plagued by terrorists and war. I wasn't really allowed outside, especially because I would be one of their targets because of who my family was…I mean, is. It is kind of confusing."

"Oh," Kurt said, "Well, how about we show you what a true picnic is like." He bamphed off to the kitchen. Gohan and Trunks looked at each other questioningly for a few seconds before Kurt came back into the room. He had made three picnic baskets full of food. Gohan and Trunks just eyed the food. "What are you two waiting for? Let's go have a picnic!"

"We should head out to the forest to the east," Gohan suggested, "I saw a nice clearing out there when I was…uh…practicing my flying. There is a nice view on the way there, as well."

"I won't be able to see the view," Kurt pouted, "Because I will be too busy bamphing from place to place."

"That can be fixed," Trunks said.

Minutes later, Puu was ready to be ridden. Yusuke wouldn't care if they borrowed him for a second, they reasoned. Besides, if something were to happen, Puu would be needed to take Kurt back to the Institute and warn the rest of the gang of the danger.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Kurt exclaimed as the group flew above the Institute grounds. A few figures in the window just stared at them, but they didn't care as they headed off in the opposite direction as the almost setting sun. A little bit of color touched the sky near the sun, but the rest of the sky was a light blue. No clouds were in sight.

The clearing that Gohan described was perfect for a picnic. Trees lined the area, giving it seclusion, as well as a few trees in the middle for shade. The grass looked taken care of, though Kurt insisted that none of the mutants cut the grass. Besides, the grass did not look cut, but rather as if it had grown to a length of two inches, then just stopped. Light trickled through the trees.

A light breeze kept the air in motion, making it very comfortable. Squirrels playfully romped though the grounds. A pair of them fought over an acorn. Birds sang their ancient songs, joining in a chorus of voices of all tunes and tones.

Seconds after the three arrived, things looked a little different. Paper from the around the sandwiches and some cans of soda lay empty on the red and white picnic blanket that Kurt had grabbed. The three boys dug into their food for a few minutes, then sat back to talk about nothing in particular. Life was good.

Then a rustle came from the trees. The light breeze that had comforted the group stopped. The animals put aside their differences and hid in their homes. The birds shut their mouths. An eerie silence filled the slowly humidifying air. Kurt, though he was very in tune with strange happenings, thought nothing of the weather, and continued to eat and talk as though nothing happened.

Gohan and Trunks, however, though things a little differently. The animals knew something that they could not pick up on. Trunks silently took on the job of entertaining Kurt while Gohan was put in charge of finding out the source of the strangeness. He felt no strange ki in the area, but a feeling on the back of his neck told him otherwise.

He never could understand why humans looked to the sky when they were in need of thinking, but when he could not figure it out, he found himself looking to the sky. What he saw amazed him.

Stratus clouds streaked some of the sky, and they were approaching quickly from the east. But these were no ordinary clouds. These were deep purple. The angle was wrong for the color to be natural for the sunset. Also, the clouds came from the same direction as the slowly loudening rustling from the woods. To make it even stranger, clouds do not go from the east in New York. They come from the west and go out to the ocean.

"This picnic is over," Gohan said aloud.

"Why so soon? We were just getting started," Kurt complained.

"Look at the clouds. A storm is coming."

"I can withstand any storm. Besides, we have time, don't we?" Kurt asked.

"These clouds came fast, and they will continue to come. We need to leave now, especially because our way of travel is through the air. I would prefer not to have to fly through those clouds."

Kurt got onto Puu and they flew off to the Institute, the clouds racing them to arrive first.

Puu was quite a bit slower than the semi-saiyans, so they had to fly a little bit slower than they usually would in similar circumstances. They arrived back at the Institute only a few seconds before the clouds would have caught up with them.

End Flashback

"What do you think that strange stuff was?" Genkai asked Gohan when he finished his story. They were in the common room, but no one else was in there because they were too busy resting from the training.

"I'm not sure. Whatever it was, it was very strange. It was almost ki, but it was just…different."

"I felt something strange as well, but I was unable to pinpoint what exactly it was. Whatever it was, it definitely caused this storm." Lightning flashed, followed quickly by thunder, sounding loudly in the background. The wind had picked up, this time at almost hurricane levels. With its rate of increase, it probably will reach that level before too long. Leaves fell from the trees and swirled before flying out of view.

"I'll call the rest of the group," Gohan sad as he headed off to gather them. Before he turned a corner and out of sight, he told her, "We'll meet in me, Trunks, and Inuyasha's room. I'll see you there in a few minutes."

Yusuke was mad. He had been taking a nice nap after going back inside from the training. He had been rudely awoken by a semi-saiyan.

Flashback:

'I might as well get Yusuke first. From what I hear, he is very hard to wake up, not to mention he is the sort of leader of the Rekai Tantei and needs to be there early…' Gohan thought as he passed by Yusuke's room. The sound of snoring alerted him that the boy was indeed asleep. Gohan opened the door.

"Time to wake up!" he said loudly. Yusuke did not budge. "We need you to get out of bed!" Yusuke just rolled over.

"….I swear… it wasn't me…. I didn't hit the guy with the fruit…..Ask Kuwabara…..He eats peaches…..Throws…..pears……like his sister…." Yusuke mumbled for a few seconds, then he went off into a short time of incoherent babblings, before he fell back into silent sleeping. His chest rose and fell with each breath.

Gohan sweat-dropped. 'I don't even want to know,' he thought before he tried to wake Yusuke up again.

"Yusuke, get up before I throw you out the window!" No response.

End Flashback

"I still don't see why you had to throw me into the rosebush!" Yusuke complained when Gohan got back from gathering the rest of the group. A few scratches from the thorns marred his face and he was a little wet and cold from the storm, but otherwise he was fine.

"You would have just slept through anything else that I would have done to you. And, for the record, I was not aiming for the rosebush."

"Shall we continue with the matter at hand?" Kurama asked before they began their meeting.

A few minutes later, after Gohan explained as much as he knew about the situation, they began to describe what they thought had happened.

"Maybe it was a demonic aura," Kagome suggested.

"Did you feel it?" asked Genkai, "I know that I felt something, but it didn't feel like a demonic aura. It seemed too evil to be human, but not like any demon I have ever felt before."

"Maybe it was a hanyou," Kagome suggested. Inuyasha gave her a dirty look. "Sorry Inuyasha, but that is always a possibility. Naraku's energy was quite a bit different from any other demon we met."

"But, Naraku is dead."

"I know that, but just because it isn't Naraku doesn't mean that it isn't a hanyou like Naraku."

Yukina had been watching the entire thing silently, until she had an idea as to what it was. "Maybe it was a quarter demon," she suggested.

"Why do you say that?" asked Kurama.

"Simple. I have heard rumors about how quarter demons are famous for strange energy signals. Even hanyous have their own distinct energy, and each one seems to have a little bit of a different composition."

"That does make sense, especially with what we know about who is making the change in the weather and the difference of the aura around the school," Kurama said, "Demons and aliens are our opponents, right? Maybe this was a quarter-demon or a hanyou, and the rest of him was an alien. That would definitely change their ki signature drastically enough to make it unrecognizable of whatever it is."

"That does make sense, but how do we explain the change in the nature of the energy. All beings share similar types of energy," Gohan said.

"If we cannot detect the exact make-up of the energy, then how can we say that it is not a simple form of energy?" asked Kurama. "If a demon and an alien had a kid, then what kind of energy would the child possess? It wouldn't have just physical energy—ki—and it wouldn't just have demonic energy—youki. It would be some sort of mix between the two."

The meeting continued for a few more minutes of debate, and soon they all agreed that their opponent was indeed a mix breed.

The trees outside swayed back and forth in the wind. A flash of lightning filled the sky with light before it dissipated into the darkness. A second later, a loud crackle sounded. The storm was getting closer and worse as each second passed.

Then, another crackle came over a loudspeaker. "Calling all X-men! We are under attack at the North Gate. Report there as soon as possible!" Scott's voice died out almost as quickly as it came on. Apparently, he was going to be one of the first to the battle field. It was time to put their suspicions to the test.

END CHAPTER

Whew, that took a while to write!

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