Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Reyes always said the closest town is twenty miles away.”

“Shall we find out?” Illyanna smirked at Roberto, crouched on the rubble in the fading shadow. Dani and Rahne shared a knowing look, things could only get better.

—

A joyous howl echoed across the moors as Rahne sprinted across where the barrier once was and their cage’s walls had now fallen. Not far behind was Illyanna, caught up in the emotion everyone was exuding in their victory; everyone else was sprinting not far behind. The entire world was spread out before them, where once hope of escape was lost, it was rejuvenated.

Leaving the chapel in ruins and having been cajoled by Sam into grabbing essentials and bags beforehand. They ran to the top of the nearest hill as the sun began to truly rise and they were led by Rahne to the top of the hill and towards the rising sun. Orange hues cast them in light as they all collapsed at the top of the hill, Dani had thrown hers and Rahne’s bag down in front of them before leaning against Rahne. Sam had rolled halfway down the hill and had ended up upside down, his cap and bag having fallen off and tumbled down further.

Their silence was one of camaraderie as they watched the rising sun, feeling the wind run over them and ruffle the grass they sat on. Dani had missed the freedom and she hadn’t been locked away that long, she couldn’t imagine how long the others had been in there- trapped. She vaguely remembered Rahne saying something about being thirteen when her powers came to: she would ask later. On a lame leg, Illyanna was the first to stand up, scouring the horizon before pointing towards a few houses and a barn in the distance.

“That’s where we should head next,” She declared, “Twenty miles is only seven hours, we can be there by,” She checked her watch she had stolen from Reyes’ room, “By two. Giving us time to find accommodation.” She began to march off before Dani’s voice called out- opposing her.

“Wait- why don’t we decide on what to do first?” She sat up straight, forcing Rahne into a further slouch against her, “We can’t just go marching to the nearest town.” She brought an arm up to curl against Rahne’s chest and exchanged another small smile, “We should plan ahead at least a little.”

“Yes we can,” was Illyanna’s curt reply.

“What about actually going to the X-Men?” Roberto suggested, grinning at the thought and from his downward position, Sam grinned back at him. School once seemed like a chore to him but he was increasingly ready to go back to it- but it was far from his mind as the open sky stretched up before him.

“I mean Canada’s always an option, isn’t it?” Rahne threw out there, “We could seek asylum- I know they were doing that for Americans because I saw it on TV.” She made a wishy-washy ‘before’ motion with her hand. Everyone began climbing to their feet as the tension spiked from Illyanna.

“We have a plan, get out of this damned place,” She was steadfast in her voice and it seemingly left no room for argument- except for Dani,
“But what about after?” She emphasised, crossing her arms, “What about after the twenty mile hike, where will we sleep? We can’t live out of our bags forever,” A dangerous voice in the back of her mind asked if Illy could even make the hike for they all saw Illy fall. Dani repeated the words and a collective hush fell over the group.

Despite Dani having the high ground, Illyanna stalked up the hill to meet her. Limp in her leg gone and a fire in her eyes. Sam scrambled to stand before she could make her way past but he was too disorientated from the blood rushing back down from his head to do much but wave a little.

“I’m perfectly fine to walk, but - if you are so concerned - I will make my way there, by myself,” Illyanna snarled, a false nicety in her voice. Sam shouted a wait, however, it was too late and Illyanna had already teleported, the faint blue afterimage dissipating. A collective groan took over the group and Rahne rolled her eyes.

“What Illyanna could of explained was that most likely Essex Corp will be coming back here as soon as they realise Reyes’s dead,” Sam told Dani and she looked acceptably ashamed. Looking around the group, he declared a vote for going to the town over the horizon, already counting Illy’s vote. Now that there were five patients, democracy came easier within the Milbury Group. Roberto was quick to put his hand up, shrugging before saying, “They could always make a plan later.” Rahne followed after, nodding and everyone turned to Dani.

“She could’ve explained it at least,” rolling her eyes before setting down the hill in a slight strop, Rahne tagging alongside her girlfriend. Sam picked up Illyanna’s bag offering it to Berto who took it readily before the pair walked side by side down the hill. Onto their next chapter. Twenty miles couldn’t be that bag, could it?

Chapter Text

Seven and a half hours of walking turned out to be a very long time.

A defeatingly long time.

Something no being should ever have to experience.

As the group shuffled around the final corner, they saw Illyanna sitting comfortably perched on top of a stack of rocks, opposite the sign that politely exclaimed, ‘Welcome to Medfield! Please drive carefully!’ Roberto looked positively enthused with the journey, despite having carried Illy’s and Sam’s bag. He glowed and had taken off his shirt within the first mile. The rest looked haggard and readily fell over onto the bottom of the rock- shaded thankfully by the same rocks they leant against.

Roberto dropped Sam’s bag off at his feet before starting a scramble up the smooth rocks. Although made awkward by the two bags strapped to his back, he made it up and stood triumphantly at the top.

Illyanna looked back at Roberto and slow-clapped sarcastically, a slight smirk on her face. “You actually made it here,” surprise colouring her voice as he sat down next to her, swinging his own legs off the ledge.
“And you look bright whilst doing it,” She observed and Berto puffed his chest at the compliment, he started taking it in stride before being cut off, “No- no. You’re actually glowing, idiot.”

Roberto took a second to look at himself and noticed his slightly glowing body. He tampered it down but found himself growing tired as he did so. He left himself slightly fatigued, but not as much as his fellow hikers. He gave a sheepish grin to Illyanna and she simply rolled her eyes.

“There is a barn, across town we can stay in for the night,” Illy stated and Roberto held stars in his eyes for her, but she continued to look forward, backwards towards the rolling hills that hid the ruins of the hospital, “There is a church in this town and a small grocer we can go to in the morning before the bus leaves for Worcester. They have told me to use the 495, then the 90, then the 84, then the 684. But-” she looked away somehow further and Roberto filled in quickly.

“Do they not have letters at the start of their highways?” He asked randomly and Illyanna nodded in quick succession.

“Is it not weird to not have letters? All road that start with an M lead to Moscow, what about here? Why does it go from 84 to 90? Why not 84 to 85? Is there an 85?” She fired off her questions in quick succession and Roberto nodded along, having not given much thought himself to highways. He suggested asking Sam but she shook her head.

They returned to companionable silence until eventually moved by the others calling up to them to get going into town.

They jumped down, joining up with the group.

—

Black and white tiled floor squeaked under their hiking boots after the teens had opened the door to a soft ring of the bell and the 50’s red diner laid out before them. Quickly scurrying themselves off into a corner, they looked down at the menu, wanting to gorge themselves but knowing it was probably best not to order too much. Sam leaned against the wall, being able to see the door from his place but he felt a little exposed without his hat on- having taken it off to go into the building.

Roberto sat to his right and Illyanna after that. Across sat Dani, the furthest possible place Illy and her could be apart and Rahne sat to the left of Dani. They held hands under the table, giving each other sly looks that sent a slight knot of pain across his own, reminding him of how Berto had simply wheeled away after he had bared his darkest secret to him.

Sam was past that now.

The chocolate chip pancakes were looking great to him right now.

He should probably-

“So, gameplan people. Illy has got us a place to stay for the night, but what after?” Roberto started, having relinquished his menu to Illyanna. Around the table people looked unsure before Rahne pulled out the child activity sheet, flipping it over and laying out 5 crayons. They all scrambled for one- Illyanna quickly snatched the light blue crayon whilst Sam managed to snag a green one that had rolled his way. Fighting for the red one with Rahne, Roberto lost before slapping his hand on top of the orange one.

“I wanted purple anyway,” Dani said with a shrug, holding up her crayon and Berto sunk into the leather plush.

Illyanna wrote down ‘barn’ on her corner whilst Sam wrote down food, water before writing down ‘stealth’ as a general word. Rahne wrote down ‘date’ whilst Dani wrote down ‘X-Men’ and Roberto added a little line to Dani’s and wrote ‘Avengers’.

This started a drawing war with Illyanna drawing little pictures next to everyone’s pictures whilst Rahne is drawing butterflies and dotted lines over everything, “After the TV show, Lola and Charlie?” She asked but got shakes of head all around. Afterwards, they had a very colourful mind map with all the colours interlinking and they all sat back as the food they had ordered whilst scrambling to fill the paper up with drawings came around.

Dani and Rahne shared a banana sundae whilst Illyanna hoards her strawberry ice cream milkshake and Roberto with his buttered pecan monstrosity.

“I don’t know how you can eat that,” Sam commented, smug with his chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate chip ice cream. Berto rolled his eyes before beholding his cone, “This is one of the greatest creations ever created!” His voice overly grandiose and his arm high in the air, placing the ice cream on a pedestal.

Rahne countered that rum and raisin was clearly better and a sharp gasp of shock from Dani came. Dramatically, she raised her wrist to her forehead and fainted, “Fruit… in my ice cream?” She exclaimed whilst Sam shook his head, nearly finding the urge to laugh despite not having done so since the lockdown had happened, “That’s blasphemy to me!”

Rapidly, Rahne turned toward Dani, “You shan’t say anything! You like mint chocolate chip!”

The table dissolved into argument and Illy quietly took the paper and crayons, safely folding it within her coat pocket next to the crayons. Sam leant back into his seat and passed over his green crayon to Illyanna before hunkering down and devouring the pancakes and feeling better for it. They paid with the cash from Reyes’ stash after a warning from Sam not to use the card just yet and to take the money out later and then bounce.

“‘Though we run the risk o’ver family freezing the account later, but if not, it should afford us the entire night, ‘cause I betcha a damn horse they following ‘er card,” He had explained simply as if it was first hand knowledge. Rahne hoped not, as she walked side by side with Dani. She herself had never run away but many of the boys did, trying to cross the Scottish moors. Most were dragged back, everyone spoke about it for a couple days before the gossip mill churned a new story out once again.

Having walked a decent mile, they turned and walked up a small flight of stairs onto the porch of a thatched roof home. It’s wooden walls were painted red and a pair of rocking chairs overlooked acres of land. A small bustle before a sweet lady opened the door, smiling at Illyanna kindly and then overlooking the rest of the group.

“I take it these, are your friends, deary,” she asked, keeping back two pairs of snouts with her hands and knees. They ruffled the flowery folds of her skirt, playfully trying to get a glimpse of the newcomers. Illyanna nodded politely- a word Rahne would have never thought to associate with her- and the kind lady fussed before stating they would show them out back and where the taps and such were.

Soon they were situated in a barn, warm with hay and the humid heat of August, most of them had walked miles and then eaten a hearty meal and nearly conked out immediately. Rahne and Dani had gone out back to play with the sheepdogs and Berto had fallen into the haystack and not moved an inch.

Carefully, Sam removed his backpack so he wouldn’t be sleeping on tin cans before falling into a pile of hay himself, looking up at the spacious barn. Despite the bone tiredness he felt from the hike, he couldn’t bring himself to sleep. There were too many variables to keep track of. It felt like rolling with those people in Louisville. Scared of people getting caught and not looking over his own shoulder enough. He covered his face with his hat to keep the few rays from his own eyes before feeling the hay sink next to him.

Peaking a look under his hat, he could see the form of Illyanna sitting to his right. He stayed where he was though, no use in moving in the bed he had already made himself.

“Why are the roads, numbers?” She asked seemingly suddenly. Sam pulled his hat to his chest and thought for a second, he had heard this answer somewhere before.

“They’re not. We go’ the Interstate numbers, the ones that go between states. Ten ta ninety (in tens ‘course) is West to East, and you go’ tha five ta ninety-five going North to South. I’m thinking some numbers mean different things but I don’t know ‘em. Like the triple digits.”

Sam sat up slowly, pulling the map he found from his back pocket and spreading it out in front of them. It was large and sprawling and he folded it in half. Pointing at Boston, Massachusetts, he explained that they were basically there. That the X-Men mansion was near Bronxville.

“Where did you live on the map?”

He coughed, taken by surprise by the question before refolding the paper to accommodate Kentucky. Although he couldn’t find his own town, he got close, “There.”

Pulling out the green crayon, she put an ‘x’ over where his finger had been.

“You said you wanted to go back to your family, right? You could go now,” Innocent in her words.

And it hit him suddenly, all his siblings were basically a car ride away. Sam grew quiet as Illy traced the interstate highways leading to Kentucky. If he went back, what would his mother say? Would his siblings forgive him? They had done so in the weeks leading up to his running away. But he had run- ashamed and terrified of the sneers the others gave him. He had only stayed for as long as the funeral took.

His breath grew shorter and suddenly the walls of the barn didn’t seem so far away and the roof was suddenly scraping the top of his back as he leaned low. Low, so he didn’t touch the roof because his dad would tease him for it. He dug his fingers into his hands, willing himself to calm down but the calluses he had formed with his father by his side was another stark reminder.

Sharp fingernails in his arms brought him back to the present, being shaken by Illyanna as she told him to snap out of it. Constriction didn’t leave his chest entirely, however, it was easier to breathe whilst looking into Illyanna’s eyes.

“Hey,” She said in lieu of knowing what else to say.

“Hey,” He copied, releasing his hands from his clenched position and seeing the moon crescents in them.

“Hey,” A voice copied, suddenly aware of Roberto who had sat next to him during his moment of panic.

Struggling with the words, Sam felt the fatigue hit him hard; his sense of realism had diminished greatly since his living nightmare in the mines, courtesy of Dani. “Sorry,” he managed to struggle out, taking a deep breath of the air and feeling both Roberto’s and Illyanna’s eyes trained on him. It didn’t feel awful like most people’s did.

“Don’t be,” cut in Roberto, gently pushing Sam down onto the hay behind him whilst Illyanna quickly moved his bag out of the way from where it had fallen from it’s perched position. His limbs felt heavy and he was being thrown through the loop before Illyanna added, “It’s not real,” Echoing his earlier statements from earlier.

They both ended up in smirks, making light of the terrifying time they had had not even a day ago.

Sam figured he’d be safe with these two watching his back.

Chapter Text

Morning came early enough for all of them. Rahne woke up in the arms of her girlfriend and kissed her on the cheek before making her way out of the barn to stretch. There, she saw Sam hunched over a tractor, oil streaking up his arm with his hat turned backward, but he was laughing with an old man in blue overalls, so she figured he wasn’t in any danger more than a hearty slap on the back in thanks.

Having rid herself of morning breath, she finally meandered her way to the tractor, leaving against it’s rusty engine and poking her head over the top. “Never got this me self. We used horses back home,” She admitted tapping at the few valves she knew wouldn’t be hot. Sam turned to greet her with a wide grin.

“Hey Rahne, how's it goin’?” He spun the spanner he had in his hand.
“Was the barn alright to you?” The farmer asked, not having a speck of dust on his overalls.

She agreed that it was a lovely barn and quickly removed herself before she was asked to go beneath the truck or something ridiculous like that. Instead, she found herself with a tourist guide of bumfuck nowhere and a deadline to get to the station by. The list consisted: get food; get water; get money; get bus tickets; get addresses.

Quietly, Dani sat down next to her, leaning on Rahne’s right shoulder, stealing an arm for herself. “Good morning,” She mumbled, still fatigued by sleep. Rahne replied with a few taps to the messy bun Dani had put her hair in. They devolved into giggles as one by one the others formed a small circle around the tourist map.

“So we should split up right?” Rahne asked, “Stay as undercover as possible.” Nods went around the group.

“I can probably take out the money. I don’ know how friendly Massachusetts folks are, but it’s always better to be one of the crowd at the bank. Especially if I’m pulling all the money out,” Sam stated, crossing his legs before tapping the ‘get money’ on the piece of paper, “If I’m quick enough I can meet back up with the food grabbers.”

Illyanna tacked onto the end, “It would be best to distract the cashier whilst I steal the food.”

“I can grab some water and spill it whilst you grab the food,” Dani nodded along with the plan.

“But how? I can cut the bottles with my nails,” Rahne countered, “I should go with Illy.”

“Makes sense,” Roberto said at the same time as Dani’s, “But we shouldn’t split up!”

All eyes looked at her questioningly and she stammered, backtracking, “I mean- I don’t really want to be apart from you, and what if something happens? It’s no big deal actually, let’s ignore this,” She smiled as if her nerves weren’t palpable in her voice. Heart touched, Rahne embraced her in a hug, trying to rethink the plan.

“Do not worry, Dani. Rahne will not get hurt,” Illyanna’s voice left no room for argument and Dani looked reassured.

Roberto then partnered with Dani to get the addresses of their A, B and C plan - X-Mansion, Avengers tower and an embassy. Roberto planned on calling his parents at some point during their walk around and was sure he could convince Dani to give him a second alone to do so.

The plan in motion, they all split up.

Sam passed twenty bucks to Rahne, leaning down so they could hear each other on the loud intersection corner they stood on. “Illy will go in first,” Rahne recounted, “And then you and I will go in. I will spill the water and then Illyanna will run to the second alley over, the right way.” Sam nodded in agreement and Illyanna entered the store, her backpack empty having been shoved into Sam’s backpack, bare of anything other than the essentials, just like his room.

Wherever they end up, how will he decorate?

Walking behind Rahne he stood in front of the water bottles, comparing prices and wondering whether it would be better to get reusable ones and filling up as they go. “How did it go then?” Rahne asked, making small talk.

“All’s good. They were pretty chill about it,” He replied, finally making the decision that if they took the 2L ones then everyone would be able to reasonably carry them. He explained it to Rahne and she nodded, trusting his judgement just like Cissie - always following him as if he had the entire knowledge of the world in his hands before picking three of them up. Sam trailed behind before perusing the sweet stand.

“D’ya think we could get some of these?” He called out, momentarily causing the cashier’s eyes to shift to him. Rahne took her moment, clever as a fox, and knocked over the bottles, causing a spillage. Tears immediately welled in her eyes as she looked over the mess she had made, profusely apologising as she went to pick up the broken bottles more water fell out, soaking her shoes.

Rushing to help her, both the cashier and Sam comforted her, reassuring that it could be cleaned up. Illyanna took her chance and walked out the door, giving a glance to Rahne and a twinned smirk as the cashier took to grabbing the mop from out back.

As Rahne took her leave after Illy, Sam was left in the awkward position of apologising for Rahne’s quick escape and paying for all the bottles again. Once everything had been paid for, Cashier - and Sam should have really learned his name a while ago but he didn’t have one of those convenient nametags - took to cornering him against the baggage area.

“Where you comin’ from then?” He asked, a sultry tone in his voice and Sam was left scrambling to say, “West Virginia,” a bright blush adorning his cheeks despite the silver lie that came from his tongue. He cursed Rahne’s existence as she walked side by side with Illyanna.

There was not many on the street as the pair walked down the pavement. Rahne took in the large road she couldn’t imagine passing through her small town whilst Illyanna dug a box of nerds from her various pockets.

“Oh look, it’s your friends,” she commented slyly before pouring a bunch into her mouth. Rolling her eyes, Rahne thought it was a great update from being called a dog before holding out her hand for her fair share. Her shoes squished under her foot but it wasn’t a large bother, more her fault for wearing shoes unlike the boots Illy always wore.

Begrudgingly, Illy poured a generous handful and the nerds turned Rahne’s fingers multicoloured and sticky. She didn’t mind though, and the sharp, sugary crunch made up for it. Rahne gave a thankful smile to Illyanna and was rewarded with a smile back, before quickly turning away and heading down the alley. It was really a walk away between the two streets, but the semantics didn’t matter.

They stood in companionable silence, sharing the nerds until they were all gone and Sam came around the corner, three bottles of water all tucked under one arm, a glare in his eyes. Accusations of abandonment followed and both Rahne and Illy laughed at him, together, until the wind fell from his sails and he could do nothing but roll his eyes and chuck the bottles on to the pair before stalking off towards the bus station.

Unhindered by their baggage, both Rahne and Illyanna sprinted in the opposite direction of Sam, “You’re going the wrong way, Boom-Boy!” Illyanna called out mockingly, matching grins on the girls' faces.

Chapter Text

“We just have to get into the library right?” Dani confirmed as they strolled down the road.

“Yup! Should be easy.”

It was not, in fact, easy.

“What do you mean I have to get a library card?” Berto slammed his hands onto the desk staring down the steel spined old lady that sat opposite him.

“If you decide to register for a library card, we will then mail you one to your home.”

“I live in a different continent!”

“I guess we will find out what happens then. If you decide to register for a card.”

Frustration leaked out of ‘Bertos’ body and he turned on his heel walking away from the she-demon. Dani raised an eyebrow at him as he stormed off before walking neatly to the desk, a smile put on her face.

“Excuse me, ma’am. But may I use the computers please?” Softly holding out a broken phone she had picked up off the floor at a whim. Sympathy held onto the woman’s face.
“Sorry, dearie. But you have to have a library card to use the computers.”

Leaning forward and sliding forward a card, she smiled conspiratorially, “But I’ll let you use this spare we have for a few minutes. Are you looking up repair shops?”

“Yes, but in my hometown,” quickly thanking her and turning around the bookshelves to get to the computer part where Berto sat in front of a dusty looking box. “Over dramatic wasn’t it?”

Berto waved his hand nonchalantly before holding his hand out for the card. Both the username and pin were written in scrawl but he got it with a few guesses. “Better safe than sorry. Don’t think I didn’t see your sympathy, I’ve lost my entire family in a forest fire, look.”

They both rolled their eyes at each other before hunching over the sticky keyboard.

“Maybe it’s just on Google?” Dani asked and Roberto typed in ‘X-Men Mansion.’

Sweet, at this rate they would have some time to kill before heading to the bus station.

They did not, in fact, have enough time to kill.

Both of them were huffing and puffing as they stumbled and sprinted into the bus station. Red faces dripping with sweat, they looked around frantically for the bus, or their friends. “Where are they?” Dani said fruitlessly, finally listing over to lean on her knees. Roberto looked just as lost, “You said we had time!”

“Not take an hour to find a phone box- Wait. Not even find: fail to find!” She whirled on him, sticking an accusing finger in his face as he scoffed. “We would have found it, if you weren’t so slow.”

“Literally, shut up. This is not helping anyone,” Dani concluded their conversation by walking towards a receptionist booth wiping the strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail back. “Hi,” she began out of breath before a force crashed into her back.

“You made it!” Called the joyous voice of Rahne and the instant fear that had overwhelmed her came to a stop. Dani tried to turn and hug back but Rahne was nearly out of reach grabbing her hand before dragging her towards Roberto. “Quickly, it’s basically leaving.”

Both Berto and Dani were pulled by a sprinting Rahne towards Sam and Illyanna that were at the back of the line. Sam kept switching towards looking at the bus and frantically looking over the bus station whilst Illyanna looked unbothered, crossing her arms.

Sam’s smile broke out as he found Roberto being pulled by Rahne and he couldn’t help but smile back, despite how ruffled he looked, he felt like a million dollars.

They piled onto the bus to New York. Hopefully they would get there without fail.

Chapter Text

They were falling. Why the fuck- How the fuck?

Nausea filled her throat as the wind rushed past her. Attempting to spread her arms out, like those videos of skydivers, she spun out of control. She couldn't see the ground until she broke through the clouds. But when she did, the rolling lands of green reached up suddenly to greet her.

Dani jolted in her seat up, gasping for the air she didn’t get whilst in the sky. Next to her, Rahne worried, her hands waving around her, trying to decide whether it would be best to hug her or to let her have space. As soon as Dani started to seek her out, Rahne embraced her in a hug whilst Dani clung to her. Catching her breath. In the front of the bus, a man had just woken up from his nightmare, popping on his glasses and quickly shaking it off with logic. He, of course, would never travel by air, so how could he be subject to falling?

Sam had leaned over Dani’s seat, having taken most of the bags with him on the passenger side window, piled high. He gave a sympathetic look to Dani’s back before sitting back down as the bus came to a stop. Murmurs of confusion came past the passengers but eventually everyone over hears that it's a police blockade and everyone just lines up outside quickly.

They’re in the middle of a forest, the large evergreens rising high into the sky. They had been on the last hour of the three hour journey. All five of them grabbed their bags, making their way out like the rest of the passengers. Whispering to each other in barely concealed panic.

“We can run into the forest?” Roberto suggested, hating the idea in an instant and at Rahne’s shake of her head, “Not everyone will be able to keep up. And what about those cars?” She gestured to a mile back with a large, black tank look-alike. The men with diamonds on their chest were quickly making their way down.

“Illyanna, can we teleport out of here?” Sam quickly asked and everyone turned to Illyanna as she turned to Lockheed, holding him up as he whispered in her ear before she shook her head. They waited for her to elaborate but she didn’t staring back.

Nervously, Sam brought a thumb up to teeth.

“We could just pretend to be normal? I mean it looks like they’re just talking to people. If we split up, we can just get back on the bus, right?” Rahne suggested, her ears twitching and her speech getting faster. Roberto nodded, grabbing Illyanna’s hand and pulling her to the back of the line and Sam disappeared into a crowd of twenty-somethings at the front of the line.

Rahne took Dani’s hand discreetly. Her breath was slightly erratic but it had been forced into a slower rhythm. “Do you want me to do the talking?” Rahne asked softly and Dani nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Dani felt better as Rahne smiled at her. However, that feeling quickly vanished as the burly form of a guard rounded on them soon after.

“Names please.”

“Lucy MacIntyre and Madison Johnson.”

“And your business?”

“Just a trip to New York, sir.”

“What’s your name again, missy?”

“Her name’s-”

“Wasn’t asking you.”

Dani’s gut sank and her throat constricted.

“What’s your name, girlie?”

Whispers of snakes, of car crashes, of rabid dogs.

Of spiders and stabbings.

Of diagnoses.

So many fears, the whispers had now become a chorus of voices chanting wants.

To Dani’s left, a man with glasses and greying hair lay a hand on her shoulder and suddenly the ground fell out beneath her.

Instant screaming filled her ears before the sound of rushing wind met hers.

“Shit- Shit- Shit- Shit!” Came Rahne’s voice, as she slowly rose up above Dani. The clouds rushed towards them and soon they were falling through the clouds. Dani could barely open her eyes to appreciate it running through her body’s fingers. Everything felt dull and despite her quite literally falling through the sky.

Rahne grabbed Dani’s hand as Illyanna grabbed Dani’s other hand. Rahne and Illyanna shared a look as Rahne took care to copy her starfish in the sky, battling against the winds to keep her limbs extended. Everyone’s eyes were squinted but Berto held a single finger up mouthing the word ‘minute’.

Panic laced Rahne’s facial expression as she looked desperately at Illyanna but was met with a similar fear. Illy’s eyes moved to her right just as Sam collided with her side, sending them into a spin and grabbing Berto’s hand. Although the wind still roared in her ears, Rahne felt a smidge of comfort, knowing she was falling with the people she had known for years if not months.

Rapidly, the clouds left them and the ground coming up closer than ever. She wanted to desperately close her eyes but knew whatever motion Illyanna was trying to convince Sam to do would be critical in them not dying, presumably.

They began veering left, which she didn’t quite understand because the lake was to their right. Instead, they began rapidly approaching a forest and Roberto grimaced before gesturing to his legs and making a rolling motion with his hand before quickly reconnecting it with Illyanna. Rahne couldn’t remember if Roberto had done skydiving before but if he wanted her to break her legs as they fell then he must have at least some point because broken legs were much better than a broken neck.

Sam was moving into the centre of their little spiral and Rahne grabbed onto him, her eyes widening in fear. Sam’s patting hand movements did little to persuade her that things were going to be okay as he sunk faster than the rest of them. After nearly being mauled by the bear, Rahne had hoped - foolishly - things like this wouldn’t happen again. That they might go to the X-Mansion and never worry about things like this again. Maybe, when they were all old enough, they would all go off to the same college and room together.

That the people that she had grown close to

(Because it wasn’t love, not quite yet for them.)

would all be okay. If not good, because after what they had been, how could anyone be good, then together. When Berto had told Dani that they were being trained to be X-Men, hope had sparked in her chest that together, even if together was her and Dani at the time, they all would all skip off into the sunset and sing kum-ba-ya.

As the trees reached up to pierce her, Sam glowed brighter than she had ever seen her before shooting off in the gap he had left of their spinning circle.

No longer was the wind rushing in her ears and she found herself in a split second of motionlessness. Her wide eyes met with Bertos and found herself mirroring his astonished, breathless smile, before they were falling again.

Branches and leaves scratched past her as she let go of everyone’s hands to protect her face. She found herself feet first in the seconds she had before hitting the ground into a roll. Pain lanced it’s way up both her feet but the panic had half transformed her anyway so it could have been a lot worse. Her backpack dug into her back as she continued rolling, covering her neck before she slowed to a sprawled stop.

She lay there, dazed. She was alive. Tears that had whelmed whilst falling at tremendous speed finally fell silently.

Soon, standing above her, was Illyanna. Her entire back was covered in armour yet to decommission and her arms were fully encased in gold. Her hair looked worse for wear, clearly wind blown and a sharp gash on her left cheek but a fire of survival burned in her eyes.

Rahne grabbed her out reached hand and hauled herself up.

She would survive to see her dream come to fruition.

Chapter Text

Hurtling through the fields, burning the ground every so often, Sam couldn’t feel as if he had made a small error in judgement.

Blurry greens are washed out by the vivid yellows that encase him. He had to channel his power through his entire body to transfer their kinetic energy and wasn’t it a miracle that he had succeeded. Having only done it a handful of times before and never to this extent, he figured that he could probably just crash into the ground and take the break.

He hadn’t realised how fast he would be going.

Or how daunting it would be to let go of the shield.

Despite having always hated the shield, he felt infinitely more clingy to it than when he wasn’t going 500 mph and more. Roberto had explained that he would take their kinetic energy from them. It had all gone way over Sam’s head but into it’s base definition- he could take someone’s speed and use it for his own.

He never would have guessed it would be used for this reason.

As he was fast approaching a body of water, he tried to let go of the blinding white and yellow that encased him, tampering it down to an orange. Sam had never considered how long his shield lasted after he shut down his power in his limbs but why wasn’t today a good day to find out? Afterall, if landing on water was akin to concrete, better his explosion not damage anything more he might have already burnt.

Was going this fast enough to burn anything he touched?

Sam held his breath as he stopped his arms from powering and was thrown feet first, off balance before they also abruptly came to an end. He hit the water feet first, water rising up before crashing down as he skimmed like a stone before being thrown suddenly under water. Breaking the surface, pain lanced his shins and he fell into a roll involuntarily. Cold water shocked his system body and he could faintly hear the hissing of something on his skin but it didn’t matter because he kept his eyes closed, frantically hoping the air in his lungs and his tucked up knees would pull him back to the surface like all those adverts had said.

Sam was not so lucky as his instincts over took him and he tried hauling his arms to get to the surface. His bag dragged his back deeper into the lake and his shirt over his shirt dragged his arms like dead weight. Everytime the current or himself moved his legs he nearly breathed in the water.

Desperately, he opened his eyes but saw nothing but the murky depths and a suffocating darkness beneath him. A tightness began to overwhelm his chest and the memory of Illyanna asking him mockingly if he even knew what ‘asphyxiate’ means comes to mind. He hadn’t, at that time, but now, he definitely knew what it felt like.

He managed to claw at what felt like mud and he blinked, feeling a rolling sensation of nausea and his visioning darkening even more. He was at his breaking point and breathed in a fatal attempt to sooth the lava in his lungs.

Distantly, Sam felt the water invade his lungs and he managed to give one last burst of energy from somewhere and breached the surface. He clawed his way onto the mudbank before giving into the desperate sensation to hack his lungs up. Curling onto his side, he vomited and wheezed and cried and thanked the Lord he was still alive after all this time.

Sam was not a devout Christian, but these past couple days had made him fall into old habits.

His eyes slipped shut as he lay in the mud.

—

“What the fuck was that, Dani?” Roberto shouted, the adrenaline from The Fall having faded but the anger steadily rising, “Was it your fucking power again, ‘cause it certainly wasn’t mine!” He ran his fingers through his hair, huffing before being forced into sitting down like the rest of the girls by their stares.

“I- I just. I was grabbed and I think I took his fear?” Her voice was unsteady as she curled into herself, “I didn’t mean to. It’s just-” She kept cutting herself off and Rahne took pity upon her.

“It doesn’t matter now, though, does it? We need to figure out where we are and find wherever Sam has shooted off to,” She looked steady despite what she had just been through. She stuck her nose in the air, having forgotten which way Sam had shooted off to when she had tumbled through the trees before pointing in a direction just to the left or Robert.

Three of them began to stand up, however Dani kept still in her ball. Now that Rahne was thinking about it, Dani hadn’t moved at all since their fall. Rounding on her, she asked, “Are you hurt anywhere?” And Dani burst into tears again, clutching her right leg.

—

Illyanna ended up having to be the one that carried Dani.

For the first half an hour, Roberto had been volunteered, but as midday steadily grew closer, his body heated up more and more. Rahne had a theory that since he had unleashed the top most of his power on the Demon Bear, that his body had adjusted to the new ‘norm’ and kept his body at a higher temperature. Rahne had then carried Dani for an astonishing 5 minutes before Illyanna had conceded.

“I do not wish to slow down even more than you’re already making us.”

So for one hour and a half, Illyanna had steadily carried Dani until the forest opened into a large field with a giant graze of burnt grass in it. She put Dani down on a log before stepping back, arms crossed. On her sides flanked Rahne and Roberto as they stood in silence for a couple seconds.

“You can’t be carried through that field,” Illyanna stated, “No one would be able to run, if…” She paused on the idiom she was looking for and instead became silent.

“Well someone needs to look out for her,” began Rahne.

“And why can’t it be you?” Roberto shot back.

“I want to make sure Sam’s okay just as much as you,” She spit back, glaring at him and they began to get closer before Illyanna smacked them both on the back of the head, muttering, “Children,” before turning around to face the field.

“Both of you will go. When you find Sam, you will send a signal up and we will make our way there.” She finished making a shooing motion with her hands.

“But- how?”

“You will have lots of time to think about that on your walk, won’t you?” And the pair walked cautiously out into the field. Illyanna turned to Dani before reaching into her bag and pulling out a roll of bandages and walking off.

“Wait- Where are you going?” Dani called back after her and Illyanna turned back and rolled her eyes at her as if the answer couldn’t be anymore obvious, “Sticks, obviously.”

Chapter Text

“Oh Christ- Oh Christ!” Berto whispered frantically under his breath as he began to sprint around the lake. Slightly ahead of him was Rahne, running in her wolf form. Previously, they had been walking together, their stilted conversation finally lifting into talking about their respective countries before the wind had blown in their face and Rahne was alert.

“He’s definitely that way,” She had told him, “But- there’s something off.” She had looked unsteady and Roberto had assured her that Sam had probably found somewhere to crash safely.

A lake and a bank of mud did not constitute a good crashing spot and that was exactly where he had crashed. Rahne let slip a whine of frustration as they both sprinted through charred grass to knee high grass. She got to the waterfront first, transforming once more and sinking into the muddy banks, panic written all over her face. Her yellow-strained eyes trained on a spot just left on the centre of the lake, “He’s there but he’s not moving, Roberto! He’s not moving!” Panic stricken she spun around as soon as Roberto had trampled into the mud himself.

Her panic was returned momentarily before his face hardened and he ripped off his shoes, chucking them into the grass alongside his bag and clothes. “Rahne I’m gonna go grab him but- I can’t see underwater, so- so you’re gonna have to whistle or something when I’m near him- I don’t know! Do something!” Roberto knew how little time they’d have if he went unconscious or even if he was. The exhaustion from the previous days must have made even activating his powers difficult, but to take all that energy, saving them whilst sacrificing himself.

Yeah, no way was he letting Sam get out of the walking that easily.

Wading into the water, Rahne let out a whimper behind him before calling out, “Slight left.” He adjusted accordingly before leaping into the water and swimming that way. It was almost soothing, the cool water on his skin and the sun on his head as he occasionally lifted his head to breathe. However, it was undercut by his frantic heart and the knowledge that every second that Sam wasn’t on land, he was drowning and possibly sustaining brain damage.

A sharp whistle pierced his ears from underwater and he stopped swimming, taking one last breath, not daring to open his eyes as the darkness temporarily abated into a bright red from beneath his eyelids before he dove down. His limbs felt weighted and the crushing sensation of water above him was tempting to give into.

His mind flashed back to the pool; despite the knowledge that it was Dani’s powers, the feeling of burnt hands, brushing his back. Mariella had always taken such good care of her hands and had chastised him for the calluses on his hands he’d develop whilst climbing. She’d turn up behind him and wrap her soft- charred- strong- disintegrating arm around his waist-

One swim, one kick, two desperate kicks, three swings of his arms before he finally brushed a piece of clothing and he held fast. Pulling, kicking, and after a frustrating amount of time he breached the surface once again, this time pulling the dead weight of Sam with him and gasping for breath.

Roberto was quickly running out of energy as the sun sunk lower and lower into the sky and in a last ditch effort, he hauled Sam by his under arms in front of him and focused his power into the soles of his feet. He felt them heating up, steady he told himself, before shooting backwards towards Rahne. Dull pain lined his back as he shot straight into the bank, nevertheless he hauled Sam into the grass.

Rahne looked terrified but immediately set to work removing Sam's backpack before listening briefly for breath. She performed 2 rescue breaths before setting herself to chest compressions, having shifted to her half-wolf form to allow her the strength to perform it properly. Her ears twitched with every broken rib and she kept muttering apologies underneath her breath, eyes watery but resolved in saving him. Roberto muttered half worded prayers in Portuguese before taking over after Rahne had performed 3 rounds.

Miraculously on the sixth round, Sam choked and gargled, quickly being turned on his side before vomiting so much water, Rahen thought it would be followed up by his stomach. Hushed hurrahs were shared and both Rahne and Roberto finally shed their tears.

—

Gathered around a low campfire, they conversed in hushed voices within their groups before Rahne called attention to herself. Sam was asleep, leant against the human heater that Roberto had become since his full form but everyone was wide awake, the events of the day not quite shaken yet.

“So, uh- I’ve figured out that we’re by Chauncy Lake, which means we’re about a four hour walk from town. Sam still has water in his lungs- I can hear it - so we need to get him into a hospital,” even if it does get Essex Corp on their tails again. Everyone nodded along with what Rahne said.

“If it is only 4 hours, why not go now? It will be less suspicious,” Illyanna said but her voice tilted up at the end, questioning whether she had used to work right to Roberto who nodded with a smile on his face. Looks went around the group to determine whether everyone was okay to walk, “Or, I could take Sam to the hospital and meet you guys at the bus station at noon tomorrow.”

“But how will you pay for the hospital?” Dani questioned, squinting through the firelight. They sat on complete opposite sides of the circle and Illyanna only smirked, denying her an answer. Whilst Rahne and Roberto were used to this kind of behaviour and had accepted it, Dani was still frustrated by it and the anger was clear on her face as she rolled her eyes, turning her back to lay down.

That was the end of the discussion.

Chapter Text

“Hey. Hey, Sam. Wake up,” Roberto whispered, moving his shoulder just a little to dislodge Sam from his sleep. Because he was so close, he could hear his laboured breathing and they both still stunk of the murky depths, but neither of them had been willing to go back in to wash off. Sam’s entire bag was waterlogged, but thankfully nothing was ruined: the map having been sealed in a waterproof wallet. All his clothes weren’t spared the same fate, so Sam was wearing a polo with the buttons done all the way up, like he was about to go to Sunday Church and a fleece that was stuffed at the bottom of Roberto’s bag at the insistence of Sam just days ago.

It was quite literally 2 days ago, that they had started their trek 3 technically since the bear had disintegrated and maybe it was past midnight now. Roberto couldn’t see through the foliage above them, and the darkness brought a sickening feeling to his throat of remembered panic. It was okay though, because he had a sleepy Sam leant against him and it didn’t particularly matter what time of night it was.

Sam mumbled a disagreement, slumping lower into the tree behind them and lifting his shirt slightly before wincing and sitting straight, considerably more awake now that the pain of his broken ribs was at the forefront of his mind. He gave a questioning look to Illyana who was standing above the pair of them but she gave nothing away with her face.

“We’ve decided that it’d be best for us to split up-” Sam’s face immediately split into one of resistance but was silenced with a glare from Illyana, “Nope- you and Illyana are going to the hospital in- Where was it? I don’t think it really matters, Wor-something. Where you’ll get your lungs sorted out and us guys will meet you there.” Roberto steadily helped Sam to his feet whilst explaining.

“This is how horror movies enter their second act,” Sam just retorted because he didn’t have any objections to the plan. He was assured by his trust in Illyana that she had an escape plan to ditch the insurance papers.

So imagine his surprise she started filling out an actual name in the insurance papers after checking into the Emergency Room at 1.37 am. “Peter Nick-oh-lah-ye-vich Rasputin? Who’s that?” Sam peeked over her shoulder as she wrote with her left hand. She side-eyed him before, “Nikolayevich. He is my brother,” Her words were clipped and she was intent upon the writing.

“Well, I was close,” Referring to the pronunciation and a smirk formed on her face but she didn’t reply. The buzzing of the hospital lights and their artificialness washed them both out. He had unfortunately lost his hat and so his sunken eyes were even more pronounced. His cast was waterlogged but he figured with the amount of cracks in it, it couldn’t be that useful anyway.

Sam would be bouncing his knee right now but his ribs would jostle too much for that to happen. So he just watched: watched as a team of paramedics came speeding into the room; watched as the receptionist answered a phone to a worried mother asking about a missing son; watched as cars sped past the window and the flashing red and blue lights melded into purple.

The Doctor eventually called them into their office to explain to them that Sam actually underwent secondary drowning, listing off Sam’s symptoms of lethargy, chest pains and difficulty breathing. He was to breathe extra Oxygen until they can get the next x-ray technician in to do a chest and arm scan. Sat in the waiting room, slumped against each other, Sam and Illyana watched as a family rushed in nearly straight after an ambulance had some in with a woman and man. Several aunts and uncles with a rag tag bunch of children in different states of dress all crowded around two of the benches but their excitement was palpable.

Illyana would obviously rather die than be seen as not knowledgeable on something so she watched curiously before Sam muttered under his breath to her, “That’s the family of the person we just saw go into labour.” She fixed him with this look of apparent knowledge but her mouth was still screwed up in confusion. A man came out in scrubs, taking down his hair net and pulling off his gloves before he happily announced the great news.

“Why are they all so happy?”

“Because every family is happy to welcome a new baby into the world.”

Sam had been to all 7 of his siblings' births, and countless other cousins’ as a babysitter. His father wouldn’t always get the news right away or the time out of the mines so the majority of the time in his later life was taking time out of school to manage the younger ones. His mother's long labour always meant that family, blood or not, crowded around the waiting room in time for the announcement and every single time joy had always emanated the air, afterall, his mother had never been in critical condition post-birth and he wondered whether it was due to a mutant gene briefly.

"Would they have been happy with me?" Illyana whispered tiredly. Sam understood the exhaustion she must have been under for a vulnerability like that to even be spoken. He took a breath before reassuring her, "Yes. As happy as can be. Your brother," Now Sam was presuming things, "Would've loved having a little sister to protect and your parents… well they'd be over the moon to have a daughter," his voice grew a little haggard and wispy at the end but no one mentioned it.

Steadily, they leaned against each other as the family scene played out in front of them.

"My brother is probably dead. That is why I used his name. He will not be bothered. But, I wish I did remember him more than small pieces," Illyana's voice was uncharacteristically small but Sam heard it loud enough. He shifted slightly, raising his arm to rest over her shoulders, brushing the nose of Lockheed and she leant closer to his body.

The air conditioning was turned up too high after all.

—

Dani's feet hurt, her legs hurt, her shoulders ached from the backpack she was carrying. Frustration lined her very being as she trailed behind Roberto and Rahne through the slowly lightening forest. The sun was still yet to rise and yet they had already been walking for over two hours. She had called three rests already and was very tempted to take a fourth but spite nagged at her to keep going. Was she really the weakest one there?

Insecurity dogged her footprints as the trees passed her by. Their great wide bases slowly shrunk to new trees and the leaves that crushed underfoot were slowly replaced by ash. Whilst Dani was not scared of the night, for she knew it was a dream, it still brought the crushing realisation that she herself had killed her father, again.

A repeated circle of thoughts within her head and the main protagonist at the very back of her mind, whispering helpful thoughts was Dr Reyes. Dani knew logically to trust anything that would come out of her mouth, but the thoughts were just different enough that maybe the Demon Bear had eaten Reyes' subconscious and deposited it back into her mind.

"Let's take a break!" Called Rahne from atop a small boulder. In the lowering shadows, her hair took upon a reddish tint and her cheeks were flushed from either the biting cold or exertion. Collapsing on the floor in front of her, she fished out her water bottle and prayed that the town they were headed to was behind a tree or something ludicrous like that.

"Rob's gone off to find a piece of sunlight, see if that brings him back awake. Don't suppose you could do the same, could'ya?" Rahne's airy laugh grated on her sleep deprived nerves but Dani held no resentment. It wasn't Rahne that couldn't function on more than seven hours sleep, or was energised by the sun, or refused to show a sliver of weakness.

Dani simply made an unintelligible grunt as she folded over her backpack in a futile attempt to get maybe 10 minutes of sleep. In a hour or so, they'd be on a coach to Hartford and all would be well.

Chapter Text

Hartford Union Station, home to bricks and benches,' Rahne thought. The bus ride had been thankfully uneventful and she could feel the palpable relief when they got to the station. No crazy powers. No stops along the way other than the predetermined ones. She could hear how much better Sam's lungs were and although the creaking of his ribs was eerie, she knew it was likely the only reason he survived.

That was enough doom and gloom, she concluded, smiling up at the sun as the group stepped out of the station and onto the pavement. She turned back to smile at Dani who looked just a tad paler from when they first got on and the bags under her eyes would have suggested that she slept on the coach. However, she hadn't slept a wink and worried Rahne ever so slightly, although Rahne couldn't blame her after what happened last time.

Everyone's head swivelled to Sam as he pulled out the map. Rahne couldn't quite pin when Sam had become the one they all turned to. It couldn't have been because he knew the US the best, Dani was also from here: and wasn't that just unbelievable, that she was in the United States of America and not her small hometown. Everyone split around Sam, two on each side with Dani on the far left and Illyana on the far right.

"So, I've been lookin' and Effie's restaurant looks nearest to a Walmart and then we can either go to the youth shelter with a bit of our money, I've heard they're not the best but I need a bed to sleep on," He jokes and grins spread out at it, "Or we could grab some camping stuff and head to the forest on the West side of town." He looked around, waiting for their approval.

"Bed," Roberto instantly said, no argument in his voice as Rahne nodded excitedly in agreement. Illyana only grunted but Rahne thought that she would appreciate a bed like the rest of them. And so they set off in the direction Sam pointed in. Roberto and Illyana in the front, Sam in the middle, bagless at everyone's insistence, and Rahne and Dani in the back, swinging their hands together.

They made their way towards the Walmart before being distracted by a large sign proclaiming that the free art installation was open and they all agreed to go inside, despite Illyana's protest of staying on track. She was roped into appreciating the knife sculpture in the back of the first room and then she was hooked.

Flowers to meadows, self portraits to random splashes of paint, she absorbed every piece of art she was ‘dragged’ along to see. She read every single little note next to the art, with Roberto lending help to a little bit of the different time periods, his mother having got some knowledge in his skull from the various museums they had gone to around the world. Sam kept rolling his eyes as Roberto kept following Illyana about with love-dope eyes. He mainly just sat on the benches in the middle of the room, looking afar from the distance, still quite tender.

This is why he was the first to notice the grey-haired lady with a jacket that looked oddly similar to a cape. The past few days had enhanced his situational awareness and the simple difference in her appearance and the hair that prickled the back of his neck made him want to tense up.

He couldn’t: he would not draw attention to himself so unnecessary.

And so he rubbed the back of his neck, tucking more hair into the back of his hat before standing up from the bench like he didn’t want to keel over. He had to be the one of the crowd as he walked over to Rahne and Dani, admiring the art on the walls as well as checking the crowd. He placed both arms over their shoulders, dropping his neck low to their height as they began to whisper.

“Stop holding hands, there’s a mutant here, just walk in.” Only the old couples seemed to be holding hands around these exhibits. There actually only seemed to be adults around here. It shocked him that he didn’t even know the day but he could guess that they were the only teenagers in the building.

“What?”

“Where, Sam?” Dani’s head immediately went on the swivel before he flicked her in the temple.

“Don’t look so obviously. I don’t know exactly but she has grey hair and-”

“She’s looking at us,” Rahne whispered, her voice wavering as she folded her hands into knots with her sleeves. Dani reached out to give a quick squeeze of assurance, “Let’s regroup in the disabled toilets. There was a window when I passed it.” They all nodded before Sam floated off to tell Illyana and Roberto but they had disappeared.

Sam shrugged it off and went to the next room only to find Illyana and Roberto backed into a corner on the far side of the room. The grey-haired lady crackled with energy and the fear that this mutant could be one of the people from the superior facility struck him. Illyana stood in front of Roberto, a careful blank mask on her face, chin up and proud. She did not dart her eyes to look at him but Roberto did.

Turning around, the grey lady looked as startled to see Sam as he felt himself. Before a cacophony of footsteps could be heard in the other room, loud grunts of get on the ground sounded out before Roberto himself was moving, side stepping Illyana and wielding a fire extinguisher. One swing to the back of the head and she was down on the floor, groaning and the three didn’t waste a second, sprinting to the exit.

“What the fuck was that, Berto?” Sam exclaimed, skirting round a corner by clinging to the doorframe. They nearly barreled over a couple and he shouted a sorry behind him.

“I don’t know! It just happened!” Berto’s voice was panicked as they skirted and fled past two guards before barrelling straight into the open disabled toilets that Dani shut and locked, keeping her hand on the lock so they couldn’t quickly pry it open, as hopeful was that thought was.

“What do we do now, smartass?” came the stressed remarks from Berto to Sam, “We’re trapped!” Rahne was already scrambling over the sink before crouching down on it and saying,
“We should split up, it’ll be harder to catch us and then we can regroup at the Youth Hostel.” She didn’t leave much room for argument as she shimmied out the window, feet first in a miraculous feet of contortion. Dani went to go after her, before remembering her duty to the lock and she motioned for one of the remaining three to go.

Illyana rolled her eyes before taking over the lock. They were pounding on the door now, “Go, I will follow you.” It was the kindest she had sounded since Dani had got there, just barely a week now, and she climbed onto the sink, shimmying in the safety locks on the window before climbing out of there.

Sam looked pained as he pushed Berto through, head first the window, and he went to climb up the sink afterwards before Illyana grabbed the back of his bag, stopping him. “We are not going through that undignified route.” Before he was being pulled forwards, backwards, upwards and down twisting through a red landscape before coming to a stop on his two feet in a shitty alleyway, wet cardboard under his foot.

His breakfast - of water and water - threatened to come up but he swallowed it back. “Okay, a little warning next time,” he rasped, grabbing her shoulder as he bent over slightly. She smirked and he could only give her a queasy grimace in return before the shout of the men having gotten into the bathroom came from the window and they all sprinted down the alley. Splitting at the end: Sam and Roberto crossed the streeting into another alley and Dani, Illyana and Rahne all turned the sharp right corner, turning right again as the next building stopped.

Chapter Text

Illyana stepped through the curtains of the haunted house first. The corridor stretched before her with mirrors on either side. Cobwebs dropped from the ceiling and the distant shrieks of fear and laughter echoed about. She already looked bored as Dani and Rahne had walked through, hands interlocked together. Rahne’s image in the first mirror was stretched upwards and Dani looked in a mirror that wiggled her features. The pair burst into giggles as they looked in every mirror together.

A figure lurched forward and all three of them lurched backwards, eyes wide as the hag behind a mirror cackled, the lights yellowing her features and disfiguring them- warts and all. Shaking it off, Rahne tried to smile her way into disregard but the firm grip on Dani’s hand betrayed her.

“This is what you wanted,” Illyana stated pointedly at Rahne and Dani and this solidified their resolve. They would prove that they weren’t scared and they turned left as the sign indicated that they should.

Static blared from the tv, static electricity zapping from the two antennae and the stick legs looking as if they were gnawed to the bone by wood worms. Dripping from the walls was bright red, sticky, blood and small pools of it had formed along the skirting board. There was a train spinning around it’s little track and an armchair facing the back of them. Blonde stringy hair poked out the top and Rahne creeped forward, letting go of Dani’s hand.

She poked the lady and her head merely lolled to the side and Illyana gave a sigh of relief. She went to go to the next door, already bored with this room before the apparent doll woke up.

She stood in a dirty, ragged nightgown, her eyes pitch black, matching her sunken eyes and screamed. Pouring down her chin, blood ran and stained her dress and she sprinted towards Rahne, grasping a gnarled hand at her and falling down with a thud. Rahne scrambled backwards, tripping over her own feet as Dani hauled her up and away. A gasping scream came from the bloody lady and Illyana wasted no time in shutting the door firmly behind them.

A giant laugh came out of Dani, slightly hysterical and Illyana followed suit, in a quiet, still reeling laugh. She stepped back into the corner of the room before coming into contact with fake greenery and cobwebs. Not small by any chance but enough she had to wipe it off of her with disgust.

“Ew,” Rahne said but made no move to help her. That was disgusting.

The door slammed open and all three girls backed up to the back of the room as a duo of people, dressed fully in black barged through the door, guns drawn up and shouting orders for them to get down. Panickly, they exchanged looks before Dani got down on her knees, hands held up behind her head. At that exact moment, the giant spider above them dropped down.

Generic monster sounds played before they were cut off abruptly and a dark smoke encased it and from within eight red ruby eyes peaked out from the cloud of ash. In the dark it was hard to decipher but it leaped towards one of the guards. Gurgling cries for help reached their eyes and the futile shots of a gun being fired before all they could hear was the sound of ripping flesh. As it consumed the woman in black, it’s body began to take shape.

Fine hairs encompassed its abdomen and its eight legs held pincers that dug into the leg of it’s victim, keeping it still. It shivered with seeming pleasure and Illyana began to drag Dani back by her collar, having froze at the sight of what her powers did. This wasn’t like Rahne where she had nearly succeeded in killing her. These were people sent here to detain them but they hadn’t truly done anything wrong.

The other enforcement officer also shuffled back but knocked over something metallic. Chewing stopped and everyone’s breath caught before there was a flurry of heavy foot on wood, sprinting for the next door. Illyana pulled Dani through as Rahne raced in herself but the giant spider was already upon the other personnel and Illyana shut the door firmly, knocking over a bookcase in front of it and backing up.

In a library now, they crouched down behind a desk and turned to Dani. Trepidation was written on Rahne’s face as she pushed her fingers through her hair, “What are we gonna do?” She looked at Dani and when Dani couldn’t come up with an answer, she turned to Illyana.

“Well obviously, Dani here is going to stop the giant spider with the amazing control over her powers that she learnt after destroying the Nightmare Bear!” Fury danced in Illyana’s eyes as she bore down Dani, “Right?”

“I can’t!” Dani cried out, hugging her knees to her chest and hiding her face.
“Well you have to!” Illyana countered, “Or we’re all going to die to a giant spider! Two people already have!” Scratching sounds came from the door now and Rahne was locked onto it now.

“Dani,” Rahne began softly, “I know you can do it-” Rahne was interrupted by Dani,
“But I fucking can’t!” Her voice broke into sobs and Illyana rolled her eyes. Her patience was limited with the new mutant and tested every day since her arrival. She should have split with Sam, at least she wouldn’t have been in this mess.

Cracking wood, alerted to the Spider’s success in breaking down the door and it crawled onto the ceiling, bloody footsteps painting a morbid feature on the library walls. Bright red line ran down it’s back and Rahne shut her eyes before chucking a book at it. Illyana followed suit as it dropped from the ceiling to slowly approach them.

“Dani! Get it together!” Illyana shouted, picking up an encyclopaedia and getting a direct hit on the spider’s face. It’s pincers were drooling basically and the image made her want to gag. It crawled over desk after desk, barely hesitating at the books being thrown.

“We have to move!” Rahne called out as it was merely 2 desks away. It’s beady eyes staring at them all as Illyana led to the next room. Rahne had Dani’s hand firmly in her grasp as they entered a mirror maze. Rahne’s breath caught and her own terror was showcased to her in four different angles. The light footsteps of the monster approached from behind and she dragged herself forward desperate to get away and in the process losing Dani’s sweaty hand.

Dani had to forge ahead, praying every corner she took she didn’t run into the Demon Spider and every head bump she didn’t lose too many brain cells. She halted as one of the mirrors to her right showcased the spider crawling up the corridor to her left. She covered her mouth, taking steps back but she wasn’t quiet enough and the spider doubled the speed it was travelling at.

In her haste she tripped and fell flat on her back and suddenly the spider descended upon her, pincer claws going to mutilate her before she grabbed them. The hair was coarse and slick under her grip as she wrestled for her life before a familiar wolf jumped onto the spider’s back, clawing and biting. The spider groaned, jumping up the wall before bouncing back towards Rahne.

Dani reached a hand out, as if that would save anyone before Rahne was carried away. Dani chased after but for all her trouble only bumped into Illyana again. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and Illyana only nodded in solidarity before racing off towards the exit, following the trail of web spun with Dani right behind her.

Chapter Text

Dani felt fucking awful, as they sprinted down a corridor. The web trail led them to the demon spider as it scrambled down the corridor. It was incredibly fast and they couldn’t keep up with it. They stopped in front of a closed door, web everywhere. Whether this was part of the stage design of the haunted house they were in or because of the demon spider, Dani couldn’t tell, but she could tell that the demon-spider was behind this door. She also knew that Rahne was behind this door due to her muffled sobs of agony and fear. Menacing clicks of flesh against the wooden floor ominously knocked against the floor before finally falling silent.

Dani looked at Illyana, who had her ear pressed against the door in concentration, “What? What do we do? What’s the plan?” Dani asked, desperate to save the one person who had kept her stable this past week. If you had asked Dani a fortnight ago who kept her sane, she would have said her dad, or not her dad if he was being annoying.

Damn, how she wished that he would be annoying right then and there.

“Plan?” Illyana hissed, “What part of this mess is where you think I have a plan?” Her gaze locked onto hers and was furious, “Her ankle is,” She paused, “And the demon has Rahne. I’m going to battle it myself.” Illyana took a step back and began to prepare herself before Dani caught herself.

“What! No!” She argued, standing between Illyana and the door, “You can’t do that!” Stubborn reared it’s head between the pair and Dani saw it in Illyana’s eyes too. She had to do something, she wasn’t going to let Illyana keep saving her, “I’ll distract it first.” She declared before looking around herself in the corridor.

Dani pulled the candle stick off of the ground, it’s three legs sticking up in the air as the candle itself fell to the floor. It teetered dangerously to the side before Dani put both hands on it’s gold hilt, flakes coming off onto her hands.

“You grab Rahne, cut her free, and then we both run. We’ll make it out this time.” Dani stated, intentions clear with the world. Before, her head had been muddled with panic, fear, but now, she had a duty and a declaration to uphold, save Rahne. Illyana gave a firm nod, determination reflecting off of Dani.

Violently, Dani kicked the door open, scanning the room and finding relief in just seeing Rahne, when did she have such a powerful grip on her? Her eyes locked onto the spider, it’s humongous body covering the bed, legs both curled up and dragging across the floor. It’s backside was huge compared to it’s head, the hairs raising up and shivering. It’s face, beady black eyes - way more than eight what the hell - stared her down, almost curiously at first, before it morphed into hunger.

All the stories she’d been told about wise spiders came screeching to a halt in her head and thrown out in the face of it, and she screamed as she thrust the candlestick forward, both handedly. She pushed off her good leg, fortunately not even thrusting forward enough to land on the bad ankle as the candlestick stuck into the spiders under-chin, grazing before hitting the bed.

It’s pincers snapped and Dani widened her eyes, blood pumping in her ears and she couldn’t hear the screams of terror from Rahne as she felt pain radiating from under her arm, where the candlestick had been hastily braced. Dani let go, stumbling backwards onto her ass and elbows first. She almost expected Illyana to jump over her, saving her from the demon-spider but she could faintly make out her blond hair inching across the wall towards Rahne.

Fuck.

Purple goo seeped out of the graze, Dani was pretty sure that was the demon in demon-spider’s doing. Ice dripped down her back, she had to get herself away from the slowly crawling spider, like Dani had already gotten trapped in it’s web, so it would just have to wait until she got tired.

In a sudden burst of speed, Dani managed to right herself and dash back towards where there had just come from. Streaking past the fallen candlestick, which seemed to have caught fire to the matted carpet, Dani paid it no mind as she turned a sharp right, throwing herself across a dining room set up with mannequins instead of diving back into the mirror mase, because that went so well last time.

Dishes and glassware clinking and shattered under the demon-spider’s misgivings, crawling over the table and pulling the white tablecloth alongside it. Fake spoiled food fell to the floor in thuds and it was still on Dani’s tail. Wooden floorboards did nothing to stop the creaking, it was, terrifying.

It was a nightmare.

Dani tripped, the pushed up carpet of the corridor she had been sprinting down, the doors swung open revealing lines upon lines of spooky figures, clowns, death, old maids, and she turned towards the quickly advancing spider. It skittered on the ceiling, undeterred by the jumpscares, jumped-

And dissolved into purple and grey ash.

Dani’s breath caught in her throat, hysteric as a grin formed itself involuntarily on her face as she slowly lay down, curled up in the middle of a corridor.

She’d asked herself what she was doing here, along with these mutants a couple times now, but it was painfully obvious now. Painfully obvious that Dr Reyes was right. She shouldn’t be in society now. She should have been locked away for years and years and-

A warm body crashed into hers and a comforting, grounding weight settled onto her body, almost crushing her and then shaking her and then. It was Rahne. Rahne who was alive and well and the demon-spider had not gotten her and that was all that truly mattered in the world right then and there. Rahne holding Dani upright, tears in both their eyes as Illyana watched down at them, with a slightly disgusted look on her face.

Was it disgust?

“Let’s move, love birds,” Illyana finally said after a solid minute, and Rahne pulled back to control her sniffing. Nodding, Rahne and Dani pull themselves together, leaning against each other as they sneak out the fire exit, avoiding the crowds and making their way out. It was going to be okay, as long as she had Rahne.

—

“You stink,” Illyana greeted the duo who had taken residence in the shaded corner of the outdoor space. They looked up, faces shifting from concern to joy as Roberto jumped up to embrace the girls, he did not succeed with Illyana. Rahne hugged back tightly, before quickly letting go and shoving Roberto away.

“She's right,” she giggled, dusting herself off and turning her nose away to breathe fresh air.

Roberto let out an affronted noise before conceding and sitting back on the modern bench next to Sam, it was slanted so they continuously and slowly slid next to each other. Nevertheless, relief was palpable in the air for everyone, just seeing each other.

“Yeah probably, Rahne, if you could ge’ us a dorm, it'd'a save us the looks,” Sam smirked, handing out one of the wallets as Roberto fake sobbed about sleeping in a real bed.

He earned a punch in the shoulder for that, Illyana waving her hand and telling him off about how he should sleep in the shower with the way he was right then and there.

“It's not our fault! We had to jump into a dumpster!” Roberto tried to defend, slumping back off of the bench as Rahne led Dani to the reception.

Illyana kicked Roberto's legs off the bench, forcing him to slump onto the ground, truly defeated as she sat on the bench, perching on the higher part and her boots in the wedge between the bottom of the v shaped bench and Sam. Sam who smiled softly back at her.

“He's right, it's not his fault. It's mine,” He shrugged, wincing a little, “I just couldn't keep up with the whole running away thing. So ‘Berto threw us in the dumpster.” He scratched the back of his head, “Real appreciative of that by the way,” he said over his shoulder and Roberto shoved a thumb upright in the air before letting it fall down. He was starfish in the grass now, eyes closed feeling in the cloudy sun.

“That's… much smarter than I thought you were,” Illyana conceded, a smirk on her face as she faced towards the small community square they were sat on the outskirts of, Lockheed on her hand, staring down at Roberto. “We were attacked by a demon-spider.”

Alarmed noises came from both boys and Sam whipped his head around and Roberto sat up like electricity had gone through him. Illyana deigned them the story of the haunted house, mirror maze, saving Rahne and the demon-spider eventually dissolving. They both look mildly worried as she waved off their concern as Dani and Rahne came back, almost hand in hand.

Showered, filled with food and repacked, distributing items between bags so that Sam and Dani did not have such heavy loads in their bags with their injuries. The sun hung low in the air and Roberto was visibly lower than usual as they sat on the floor, the cyan, circular carpet connecting them all. Bags were never further away than a reach and the door was locked with the chest of drawers pushed against it and window blind drawn. It felt a bit paranoid but after the day that they had had, it was needed.

“So, who was the rain woman in the gallery?” Rahne asked, leaning against Dani who had their legs sprawled out and an ice-pack loosely placed on top between a teatowel. She got puzzled looks and she explained further, “You know, black, white hair, grey eyes. Staring into Sam’s general soul,” She tried lightening the mood and Sam nodded.

“Yeah I remember, kinda forgot with all the shit that’s gon’ on today. I-” His voice quietened, cast scared glances to the door, “I thought she would’ve been with tha’ men in black, but she’d’ve come after us otherwise. She was just… observing.” Sam commented with murmured agreements within the group.

“Is there a point in worrying right now?” Dani asked, she yawned unintentionally, “If she comes after us, we’ll figure it out.”

Illyana looked like she wanted to make a snarky comment, but was glared down in admonishment by Sam before it could be spoken. “What bus route are we catching next?” Dani asked, the lull in the group breaking as she chucked the bus brochures towards Sam.

He leant forward, “I just wanted to be sure, a-ha,” He spread the map out on the carpet and everyone leant forward as he pointed to the We are here point. “We’re here, obviously, and if we take this Greyhound bus, it should take us, what, thirty minutes, to reach New Haven, it’ll be a straight shot to Bronxville,” He smiled, looking up at the group and being met with reassured grins. The finishing line was basically a days journey away, if they managed to keep out of trouble.

“Bus is early tomorrow, we want to cover as much ground as possible, so off to bed now, I’ll take first watch,” Sam declared.

“What! No! You’re the most injured out of all of us!” Rahne argued. Illyana scoffed at Sam, standing up with a roll of her eyes.

“Obviously, I will be taking the first watch,” She declared, crossing her arms, and Rahne regarded her for a second before conceding. She felt awful after the whole demon-spider ordeal still and she and Dani piled into the top bunk, as Sam was helped gingerly into the bottom bunk.

“I was always a top bunk kinda guy,” He joked, shaking his head as Roberto countered, “I never had to share my bed,” Yeah that was the rich talking. Sam had gotten the top bunk of the boys room since before he could remember, probably before he could climb up the ladder himself. It was just how it was, two bunks, four beds in a room.

Sam fell dead asleep not a minute later and Roberto lay awake for a while more. Illyana was still on the floor, Lockheed talking to her in low voice, voices drifting him off to sleep, his last thought was slight regret at having to be woken up in a couple hours himself.

Chapter Text

Sitting on the bus, Rahne curled up, leaning her head against her jacket that she had bunched up against the window and closed her eyes to the glare of the sun. They were stuck in end to end traffic on the motorway and they had already been there for 40 minutes. She was getting sick of the United States very quickly. The distance they had travelled felt like going from Scotland to Cornwall several times over, and she missed having convenient trains, as expensive as they were, and buses with shitty carpet for seats, and her mum.

Rahne missed her village.

The forest, the ground beneath her paws, filled with scents of hundreds of animals. The houses, quaint as they were, contained the same families they always had. The routine, every morning walking to the school, being taught, eating the same foods on every day of the week.

Rahne had decided to sit with the bags on this bus journey, alone with her thoughts as she gently contemplated her mortality in the sweltering bus. She nearly died yesterday with the Rain Lady, then the men with guns - honestly this country - and then the spider. She had complicated feelings for the spider. Yes, her girlfriend’s powers had created it, but it wasn’t Dani’s fault.

It generally hurt her head. Could she deal with the fact that Dani’s powers, which she had only learned a fortnight ago, were doing horrific harm. It had retraumatised everyone in the facility, killed the Reyes, killed those guys outside, and properly cemented all of the on the path to villainy. Would Rahne become a villain with her friends?

The answer was obvious.

She sighed, blinking her eyes open into the sun and tuning into the only conversation that was happening, between Bobby and Sam. With Rahne wanting to sit alone, Illyana and Dani were also spread across separate seats, and did not look like they would ever engage in any conversation with each other willingly, ever.

“Roberto, I’m being serious, no powers, you could not take a horse in a fight,” Sam wheezed through laughter, face bright red. Roberto had taken the window seat and seemed to be glowing on his shoulder and back, which was pressed against the window. Rahne was kind of jealous he would never get sunburnt shoulders cause it wasn’t fair how she spent 3 hours on a cloudy beach and went lobster red, and he could laze in the sun for hours and not even get skin cancer later on in life.

“Yes I could!” Roberto countered, grinning wide back, “Just give me prep time!”

“Prep time is like- 10 minutes!”

“I can find a rope in the amount of time!”

“And?” Sam’s voice was exacerbated, placing a hand on his face, “Horse also gets prep time.”

“What’s a horse gunna do?” His hands flailed in the air like he had been physically pushed.

“I dunno, but it’s only fair.”

This argument was fun. It was easy to be lulled into a sense of safety leaning against the glass and letting the laughter pass over her.

She did end up with a peely shoulder in the end.

—

Standing in front of the train sign, they hunkered down on the grimy floor, exhausted from the journey and waiting for their saviour Roberto to bring them water, the guy did not even have the politeness to look tired. “Welcome to Fordham!” Was bared down on them and the sheer relief that radiated off of all three of the girls when Roberto came back with all their water bottles was stark.

“My fucking saviour,” Rahne gasped out dramatically, cupping her hands like Oliver Twist and flopping back dramatically onto Dani when Roberto threw her bottle at her. He smirked, glowing slightly brighter before Illyana smacked him upside the head, levelling a glare as he wilted dramatically. He cried out for Sam to save him but found no sympathy in Sam who was chugging water like it was the first he’d had in days.

“Okay,” Illyana called attention, picking the map out of the side of Sam’s backpack and opening it up. She followed the pencil line with her eyes and began, “We are only passing through this city. We should be able to find our way onto a… metro,” She trailed off, sneaking a glance at Sam who looked slightly nauseous, probably from both the excessive water and the thought of being on an underground metro.

“I’ll be fine-”
“The fuck you will be-”
“We’ll walk! It won’t take all day!”

Voices began to speak over each other, overcompensating, apologising, all driving up the volume, unnoticed in a bustling centre. Rahne took a step out of the circle of voices as most of them took a step forward, towards Sam. Seeing Illyana also take a step out, she sent a small smile over to her, Illyana didn’t return her smile, instead, furrowing her eyebrows and motioning slightly to their left.

Slowly, just to catch whatever it was in the corner of her eye, she caught the distinctive pop of bubblegum, and a hum of energy that seemed to encase Sam when he was channelling his powers. Her ears pricked, shifting slightly still in their human form and the hair on the back of her neck stood taunt, like every night when the doc watched them on the cameras.

She nodded, not at anything in particular, as to let Illyana know she had cottoned on and pushed her way back into the group. The three of them could be so blind at times, it would be best to not let them know until they wouldn’t immediately turn around to look at their watcher.

Rahne briefly wondered if this run was related to the last batch.
Gently ushering out the group, stopping by the fountain to refill their bottles, they were out on the streets of New York, home to the best vigilantes in the States. Hot dog stands and looming skyscrapers, what could be better to blend into all this commotion?

Chapter Text

Sitting on the bus, Rahne curled up, leaning her head against her jacket that she had bunched up against the window and closed her eyes to the glare of the sun. They were stuck in end to end traffic on the motorway and they had already been there for 40 minutes. She was getting sick of the United States very quickly. The distance they had travelled felt like going from Scotland to Cornwall several times over, and she missed having convenient trains, as expensive as they were, and buses with shitty carpet for seats, and her mum.

Rahne missed her village.

The forest, the ground beneath her paws, filled with scents of hundreds of animals. The houses, quaint as they were, contained the same families they always had. The routine, every morning walking to the school, being taught, eating the same foods on every day of the week.

Rahne had decided to sit with the bags on this bus journey, alone with her thoughts as she gently contemplated her mortality in the sweltering bus. She nearly died yesterday with the Rain Lady, then the men with guns - honestly this country - and then the spider. She had complicated feelings for the spider. Yes, her girlfriend’s powers had created it, but it wasn’t Dani’s fault.

It generally hurt her head. Could she deal with the fact that Dani’s powers, which she had only learned a fortnight ago, were doing horrific harm. It had retraumatised everyone in the facility, killed the Reyes, killed those guys outside, and properly cemented all of them on the path to villainy. Would Rahne become a villain with her friends?

The answer was obvious.

She sighed, blinking her eyes open into the sun and tuning into the only conversation that was happening, between Bobby and Sam. With Rahne wanting to sit alone, Illyana and Dani were also spread across separate seats, and did not look like they would ever engage in any conversation with each other willingly, ever.

“Roberto, I’m being serious, no powers, you could not take a horse in a fight,” Sam wheezed through laughter, face bright red. Roberto had taken the window seat and seemed to be glowing on his shoulder and back, which was pressed against the window. Rahne was kind of jealous he would never get sunburnt shoulders cause it wasn’t fair how she spent 3 hours on a cloudy beach and went lobster red, and he could laze in the sun for hours and not even get skin cancer later on in life.

“Yes I could!” Roberto countered, grinning wide back, “Just give me prep time!”

“Prep time is like- 10 minutes!”

“I can find a rope in the amount of time!”

“And?” Sam’s voice was exacerbated, placing a hand on his face, “Horse also gets prep time.”

“What’s a horse gunna do?” His hands flailed in the air like he had been physically pushed.

“I dunno, but it’s only fair.”

This argument was fun. It was easy to be lulled into a sense of safety leaning against the glass and letting the laughter pass over her.

She did end up with a peeled shoulder in the end.

—

Standing in front of the train sign, they hunkered down on the grimy floor, exhausted from the journey and waiting for their saviour Roberto to bring them water, the guy did not even have the politeness to look tired. “Welcome to Fordham!” Was bared down on them and the sheer relief that radiated off of all three of the girls when Roberto came back with all their water bottles was stark.

“My fucking saviour,” Rahne gasped out dramatically, cupping her hands like Oliver Twist and flopping back dramatically onto Dani when Roberto threw her bottle at her. He smirked, glowing slightly brighter before Illyana smacked him upside the head, levelling a glare as he wilted dramatically. He cried out for Sam to save him but found no sympathy in Sam who was chugging water like it was the first he’d had in days.

“Okay,” Illyana called attention, picking the map out of the side of Sam’s backpack and opening it up. She followed the pencil line with her eyes and began, “We are only passing through this city. We should be able to find our way onto a… metro,” She trailed off, sneaking a glance at Sam who looked slightly nauseous, probably from both the excessive water and the thought of being on an underground metro.

“I’ll be fine-”
“The fuck you will be-”
“We’ll walk! It won’t take all day!”
“No really. I should be over this-”

Voices began to speak over each other, overcompensating, apologising, all driving up the volume, unnoticed in a bustling centre and cutting each other off. Rahne took a step out of the circle of voices as most of them took a step forward, towards Sam. Seeing Illyana also take a step out, she sent a small smile over to her, Illyana didn’t return her smile, instead, furrowing her eyebrows and motioning slightly to their left.

Slowly, just to catch whatever it was in the corner of her eye, she caught the distinctive pop of bubblegum, and a hum of energy that seemed to encase Sam when he was channelling his powers. Her ears pricked, shifting slightly still in their human form and the hair on the back of her neck stood taunt, like every night when the doc watched them on the cameras.

She nodded, not at anything in particular, as to let Illyana know she had cottoned on and pushed her way back into the group. The three of them could be so blind at times, it would be best to not let them know until they wouldn’t immediately turn around to look at their watcher.

Rahne briefly wondered if this run was related to the last batch of crazies after them. Not that they were crazy but, you would kind of have to be to hunt down super-powered kids, right? Gently ushering the group out from the underway, stopping by the fountain to refill their bottles, they were out on the streets of New York, home to the best vigilantes in the States. Hot dog stands and looming skyscrapers, what could be better to blend into all this commotion?

“Dani?”

“Yeah, Rahne?”

“You probably know the most about heroes cause we’re not from America,” Rahne started, motioning to herself, Roberto and Illyana, “And Sam was living in ass-crack America,” Sam looked thoroughly offended to have Kentucky referred to as such a terrible place, “Do you think any superheroes in New York could help us?”

Dani looked contemplative, briefly slowing to think before being shoved forward by Illyana as they were trying to walk. Dani sent a glare back before catching up with Rahne again. “Well obviously you have Professor X, Wolverine and the Beast. They’re all pretty distinctive figures but I guess Professor X just looks like some bald guy in a wheelchair if you don’t know him…”

The group turned the corner, walking past a corner cafe, having to weave between chairs and tables and generally becoming a jumbled mess. Sam pulled ahead of the group and led them to the front of a massive sign with all of New York labelled on it. The map pointed in a cheery tone that they were at St James Park.

“So Wolverine is, he wears like a yellow jumpsuit- I think- and he’s got like hair that goes pointy,” She made hand movements alongside her head, “And he has knives coming out his knuckles when he wants. He always looks grouchy and the Beast is a blue man, huge,” She pulled up her shoulders to mimic, “And he can climb on the ceiling and shit. I don’t really know any others…”

Rahne came up to Dani’s side and hugged her in thanks whilst the others looked pensive. They had gotten this far and all they had to do was find an X-Men; in a city of so many people it felt like an impossible task.

“We could cause a commotion?” Roberto proposed, looking uncomfortable with the idea, “If we became too much for the police to handle, they’d have to call them in right?”

“Or they would immediately throw us in prison,” Illyana countered snappishly.

“It’s not like we can just go around asking everyone in New York if they can take up to the X-Men!”

“It’s better that being thrown in prison and broken up. The super-human jail would be infinitely worse that being in New York all by ourselves.”

Tension floundered as the afternoon sun heated Roberto’s skin and energy and Illyana got heated with the infinite animosity sitting under her skin. Dani took Rahne’s hand as Rahne prepared to get in between the pair. Her hair stood up on end between the crackling energy between them and the guilty part inside her believe this was why they were locked away.

Suddenly, Sam jerked his arm upwards, jumping a tad to snatch a flyer off the top of the sign. He landed with a grunt, holding his ribs and squeezing his eyes shut in pain. Rahne, and therefore Dani, immediately went to his side, holding him up whilst the other two blinked off their conflict. Sam straightened up and presented the flyer.

It stated, “Do you need someone done in?
Crappy business partner?
Someone who pulled the wool over your eyes?
A shitty mistress?
Look no further! We locate, kill and dump the body!
For LOW LOW LOW prices!
Come to [ ] in the Lower East and get your quote today!”

They all stared in horror at Sam.

“You want to kill the X-Men?” Roberto said in disbelief and Sam’s face dropped from it’s grin of triumph to horror.

“No!”

“Then why the fuck–”

“It says locate!”

“And then kill and dump!” Rahne interjects, keeping a tight hand in Dani’s grip.

“We can just pay for like a 3rd of the services!”

“What in the Kentucky is Sam talking about?”

“I fear he’s gone fucking insane,” Illyana blankly states and Sam turned his head to her slowly, a grin of absolute incredulity.

“Really, Illyana? You too?”

“Whatever shall we do? Our courageous leader has got to go to the loony bin!” Rahne said in an exaggerated British accent.

Sam shoves Rahne, does a double check to make sure he is going to walk in the correct direction, and starts walking back from where they came from. “I am not entertaining your stupidity guys,” Sam says in a monotone voice. For the first hour of walking, it’s all they can talk about. Wide grins or small smiles on everyone’s faces as they poke fun at Sam’s delusion of the Kentucky barter system. They make it to Claremont Park and have a quick snack after an hour of walking. The heat trapped in the concrete is now rising to heat their faces and sweat is everywhere unfortunately. Whilst the energy of the group is high, so is the temperature.

After an hour and a half of walking, they make it to Central Park. Collapsing into a heap under a tree, they lay there for a solid 5 minutes before Roberto starts to rummage in Sam’s bag for lunch. 4pm rolls around not soon after and they wander through the entire length of the park. Ooh-ing and aah-ing at the various trees and plants. Whilst everyone is tempted to jump in a cool body of water, looking at it does not seem very tempting after it had been fermenting in the sun all day. They consider going to the zoo but ultimately find it to be a waste of money, much to Roberto’s chagrin.

Another hour and a half walk later, they peer up at the empire state building. Sam and Dani have a very serious conversation about floor 600 whilst the other three stand behind them looking confused. They’ve walked so far that Illyana does not think to look around for their bubble-gum tag along. The pair go in and come out fairly quickly but with huge grins on their faces, shaking each other and giggling. Both Roberto and Rahne try to ask what was so funny but the pair get brushed off in favour of general excitement and energy. “You have to read the books to understand,” Sam says coyly, almost butting heads with Dani in a fit of elevated excitement at the sentence he just said.

Another one hour walk and 5 bags of gummy worms, they make it to Lower East Manhattan and stand on the other side of the street to a dingy bar. Lights are flickering on and off and there seems to be a ruckus inside.

“Should we actually go in?” Rahne says, apprehension radiating from the group, except for Dani, who looks invigorated despite the trek. Rahne turns to her, suddenly remembering her ankle but Dani’s smiling at the bar and like she’s drinking in the area around her. Confused, Rahne makes a note to ask about it later and to deal with the current problem first.

“Okay, what did I really expect from this flyer anyway?” Sam questions himself and squares his shoulders, steeling himself. “I’ll go in by myself, stay out here and stay safe.” There are immediate protests and the overarching note is that they go in together or not at all. Sam looks relieved and they all cross the street together, opening the door and there’s a moment of lowered volume as everyone turns to look at them.

“Okay, you’re definitely not even 18!”

“Who let in the teen titans‽”