One More Time - A "The New Mutants" Story

-Beginning-

It's been a little over 5 months since the New Mutants defeated Dr. Reyes and left the hospital behind to start fresh. They were last seen heading towards a town '20 miles away' according to the evil doctor. I wonder how that went..

"Dani," Rahne said with her slight irish accent presenting itself. "Yeah?" Dani entered the bedroom of their apartment to see her girlfriend just standing beside the bed, her wolf eyes staring longingly at the doorway. "What?" Danielle said with a small laugh and walked over. The two girls held hands in what Dani found to be awkward silence. "I got you something." Rahne slowly pulled her hands away and pulled two things out of a bag. Dani's eyes squinted to get a good look at it as her mind thought about what it actually could be. Relationship heart necklaces? A knife for self-defense? A fake snake to prank me? Oh god, she knows I hate snakes! Even though Rahne would probably get every single one of those things, her choice of a gift was far from most of the guesses. "Hold your arm out and close your eyes." She said softly. "No way!" Dani responded, now letting out a bunch of laughter. "Come on! Just do it!" Rahne yelled over both of their laughs. Once the room filled with more silence, Dani did what she was asked, staying tensed up with calmness hiding in the pit of her stomach. Rahne let out one more laugh and then finally put a bracelet on Dani's  right wrist. "Okay. Open," she said with a truly happy smile forming. Dani opened her eyes anxiously and then all of her obvious emotions were quickly wiped away as she admired the bracelet. It was a nice forest green, and now she noticed that Rahne had the exact same one on her left arm. "I love it!" She yelled all of a sudden. "Wait.. really?" "Oh- duh! Of course I do! I love it, I love it, I love it!" Dani exclaimed joyfully and wrapped her arms around Rahne. They exchanged a quick kiss and then laid their heads against each other's with soft smiles. "I love you so much, Rahne Sinclair." "Don't even doubt for a minute that I love you any less, Dani Moonstar."

Roberto is in a clean, open living room, kicked back on the large couch and watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Suddenly, a big blue 'wormhole' appears in the reflection of the screen, making him focus his eyes more on that than the actual show. "Finally. I've been waiting all day for you to get back from wherever you-" Roberto got silent and turned to where the reflection had been but saw nothing there. "Illyana?" He sat up from the couch and saw a small puppet lying on the ground. Lockheed, his mind said loudly. Quickly but nicely, Lockheed was picked up and placed into Roberto's left hand. Then, another blue wormhole appeared with Illyana inside of it, standing in a random area with fire all around. "Illyana!" Roberto yelled. "What is going on? Here, take the puppet! Catch!" He prepared to throw it but heard a "No!" come out of the blonde's mouth and stopped. "What do you mean, 'no'?" "Take care of him for me!" Before anything else could be said, the portal closed and the house now fell into an extremely awkward setting. "Are you kidding me?" Roberto said under his breath with disbelief. He held Lockheed up in front of himself and flopped back down onto the couch. "Did you almost die? Is that why you're here now? Has she been throwing herself into trouble this entire time? I mean, is she even trying to stay safe?" The questions were left unanswered as he realized what just happened. "Am I seriously having a conversation with a literal puppet?" A heavy sigh was released, followed by a small pause. "Why did I fall in love with her?"

Meanwhile, Sam's not exactly living the same kind of life as the others. He's been in hiding; moving from house to house for the first 3 to 4 months of being away from the hospital. As Dr. Reyes had said, if he hadn't been at the hospital all that time, he would've been in jail or worse for what he did to those people in the mines. Poor, Sam. But at least he's finally found a place, no matter how 'terrible' that place may be. "Mornin', Mr. Chapman," Sam exclaimed with a smile on his face as he walked into the kitchen of a shop. The shop owned by Mr. Chapman, the kind man allowing him to live there in secret as long as he gets something in return. "What did I tell you, Samuel, just call me Henry." "And what did I tell you about callin' me Samuel?" They both laughed together for a moment- a very nice moment- and then finally continued their conversation. "Sir, I know you took a lot of time to set up my schedule and all, but I need to take today off." Sam sighed heavily as if that was the hardest thing he'd ever done. "Of course, son. Go ahead." Those words stunned the boy, making him have nothing to say. Instead, he just hugged Mr. Chapman and started heading out the front door. "I promise you, I'm gonna be back working ten times harder tomorrow!" Sam said while walking with a spring in his step. "How about 50?" The man added. "You got it, Mr. Chapman!" Henry watched him leave with a proud expression filling his face, as if his own son had just won an Oscar.

What'll happen next with Dani and Rahne? What's going on with Illyana, and what will Roberto do about it, if at all? Where's Sam going? Well, I guess you'll have to see in the next chapter. (comes out Friday, April 16th)