Thanks to those who read the last chapter, favorited this story or me, and followed this story as well. :) Sorry for the wait, but I'm starting to think that all the schools around here are really ticked about something and have all the students almost literally up to our necks in homework.

So, hope you enjoy this next chapter of Spirit's Life: X2, and please review! Oh! And HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's to 2013!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Spirit and any other OC characters that may be encountered in this story.

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"Come on, man, give me a light," came the snobbish whine of a human male.

I growled from where I was laying at Rogue's feet, comfortable on the aluminum flooring. Well, it wasn't exactly all that comfortable, but I was comfortable where I was laying and didn't feel like getting into a fight at that moment. Unfortunately, at that moment, two obviously stupid human males were bothering us so that one could place some sort of bad smelling stick on John's lighter and breath smoke on it. Or something like that. Rogue didn't exactly elaborate when I asked for details.

We were at the museum, as the Professor had promised. I was still uncomfortable with the concept of being in a human form and had changed into my German Shepherd form instead; a white wolf would have just been a bit . . . "out there" as Bobby had put it. I was all too willing to go along with it, since anything was better than being human and having people, especially males, stare at my chest like it was lunch. Rogue refused to talk to me when I asked her about that as well.

Anyway, I managed to pay attention through most of the lectures that the Professor was giving before I got bored (I already knew most of the things as well since I spent a good chunk of my days reading from the Professor's library at the mansion) and was only too ready to accept Rogue's invitation to what she called the food court. Since we didn't really have a blind person or anything to explain my presence, Rogue just told me that I was to act like a seizure dog, though the Professor was the explanation for why I was allowed on grounds without a harness or a collar or a leash.

It hadn't taken us long to get to the food court (by us, I mean me, Rogue, Bobby, and a boy named John) and to find a table for ourselves. But we hadn't managed to avoid detection for fifteen minutes before these two idiots who smelled like the beginnings of a forest fire started with acid had come up and demanded to use John's lighter. Apparently, John needed to use the lighter to help with his mutation of controlling fire.

The clicking and flickering noise of the lighter being opened and turned on brought me out of my thoughts and I looked up towards the two oafs.

John was looking at the brightly colored flame that the lighter produced before he snapped it shut.

"Sorry, I can't help you there," he drawled, looking towards the boys with a cocky grin.

The first boy started arguing with John when I realized that the second boy was looking at Rogue, making faces. I snarled, hackles raising.

The second boy took a small step back and I huffed in satisfaction, looking back up towards the others. The other boy had managed to take John's lighter, lighting the end of his bad smelling stick. I felt the tension grow in the air and shifted my hind legs underneath my belly, ready to propel forward if need be.

Unfortunately, that's almost exactly what I had to do when John made the fire on the end of the stick flare and spread to the boy. John just stood there laughing before Bobby stood and shot ice at the fire, effectively putting it out. And revealing our presence as mutants.

The boy started to scream and rave, a noise which was quick to annoy me. I growled, standing and moving a bit towards him before I realized that all was silent around me. Everyone in the museum, save for our small group in the food court, was frozen in place. Unnerved by this, I went back towards Rogue, pressing against her legs.

Rogue started forward, looking warily at the frozen humans around us. "Bobby, what did you do?" she asked, her voice quiet.

"I didn't do this," Bobby answered, looking just as awed as his girlfriend as he poked at one of them.

A sudden whirling noise cause me to look over my shoulder to see the Professor wheeling towards us.

"No," he stated once he was within earshot. "I did."

I gave a soft whimper and pinned my ears back, hiding behind Rogue's legs. The Professor looked sternly at us before turning his attention over to the two boys.

"The next time you feel the urge to show off," he started. "Don't."

I whimpered again, lowering myself to the floor and playing my head on my paws, feeling my German Shepherd form slip away into my natural wolf form. The white of my fur almost matched the ice on the face of the startled looking boy on the ground. The fleeting thought of peeing on him occurred to me, but almost instantly thought better of it; we were already in trouble from wandering away from the group and now even more so because we'd caused a scene. I looked towards the Professor, sensing his sudden change of mood as he looked up towards a television screen. A woman's voice came on, talking about a mutant attack on the President in the White House. None of those terms really meant anything to me, but I had a feeling that they meant something to the others, so the tension in the air grew so thick it was almost tangible.

"Maybe we should go, Professor," Scott said, standing just behind him with Jean at his side.

With his eyes still on the screen, the Professor nodded. "Yes," he said. "I do believe that you are right."

Professor? I asked timidly. What's going on?

The Professor tore his gaze away from the screen, smiling slightly towards me. "Nothing that you should be worrying about, Spirit," he assured me. I relaxed slightly at his words and looked towards the television screen as everyone began to file out of the museum. Though I knew his words were well meant, I was beginning to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach; something bad was about to happen. That much I knew.

I turned my icy blue gaze from the television to a massive, stuffed sabertooth tiger, its jaws fixed in a forever ferocious snarl. I wagged my tail towards the prehistoric predator before trotting out after the last of the group, a boy named Artie. He glanced down at me before smiling and sticking his tongue out. I wasn't at all surprised to see that it was the color of a lizard's, all black and blue and forked. I wagged my tail at him like I had the sabertooth cat. He smiled at me again and we both hurried out of the museum after the others. By the time everyone was moving again, we were long gone.

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Sorry for the wait guys! Had to find X2 on the TV and record it to get the lines right; I'm not even sure if they're exactly right now, but it's a start. Please read and review, and hopefully, I will have the next chapter up sooner than the last two. Thanks!

ML out

(PS, reviews are greatly appreciated. :))