Okay. Nothing that is Marvel's is mine, nor do I have permission to use it.

The Land of Xanth is not mine. It belongs to the fabulous Piers Anthony. If you have never read any of these books, go check some out. There's only about twenty novels in the trilogy. You can also find many sites devoted to it on the web- just type in 'Xanth' in the WWW search and there ya go.

Now, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE NEVER READ THE XANTH SERIES. (Just makin' sure I got yer attention.) I don't think you should have any trouble with this story, as it is an original adventure, and not just the GenX kids tossed into one of the actual Xanth books. Just let it be known that the Land of Xanth is a magical land made of execrable puns, and is shaped suspiciously like the state of Florida.

For those of you who have read the series, this story takes place sometime before Golem in the Gears.

This story takes place in my own little timeline. Hopefully you have read my other stories, and so you know what I am talking about. If you haven't read my other stories, then shame on you for breaking my heart.

Feedback, as always, is appreciated and dearly loved.

All right, now that we've got all that cleared up, on with the tale.

Bobby smiled to himself as he sneakily maneuvered down the hall. After helping conduct finals the week before, he had decided to hang around until everybody left for vacation. It afforded the perfect chance for revenge. Ah, the final stretch. He abandoned being sneaky and went for the goal.

* * * * *

thud thud thud

Jubilee cracked open an eye. It took her a second to figure out what had woken her up.

thud thud thud

She frowned. That sound didn't belong, yet it was strangely familiar.

thud thud thud

Two weeks ago, the last time she'd been at the Westchester mansion...

"Aw, crap!" She yelled and was struggling to get out of the way when-

SLAM!

-her bedroom door flew open and Bobby launched himself into the air, screaming gleefully, "Bonzaiiiiii!" He landed square in the center of her bed, launching her several feet in the air and to the side, where she landed in a squalling heap.

"Yeaaaaaargh!" Jubilee struggled out of the tangled mass of blankets and chased him out of her room and down the hallway. "Bobby! You are so dead!" She screamed after him.

"What's going on?" Daria asked as she opened her guest room door just in time for Bobby to run into it.

"Thanks, D!" Jubilee yelled and threw herself on her early morning adversary. They rolled across the floor, kicking, biting, pulling hair, generally pummeling the heck out of each other until Jubilee got the upper hand and sat on his head.

Daria hunkered down next to Jubilee and asked again, "What's going on?"

"Nothin'. Bobby was getting me back for last time I was visiting the X-Men. Can you sit on him while I go to the bathroom?"

"Okay." Jubilee held Bobby down while Daria plopped on his head.

"Stop thrashing!" Daria scolded, and smacked him upside the head. "You're going to throw me off!" She smacked him again, and his squirming subsided. There. That was better.

* * * * *

Ten minutes later, Angelo stumbled into the kitchen, looking over his shoulder. "Jubecita? Why is Daria sitting on Drake's head?" He asked the kitchen's other occupant, who was musing over what to have for breakfast.

"Huh? Geez, I forgot." Jubilee jumped up and ran to the doorway. "Daria! You can get offa him now!"

"'kay." Came the faint reply.

"What was that all about?"

"Don't ask. Can ya get the Sugar Bombs for me? My back is still all ouchie and I can't reach."

Angelo sighed and was just pulling the box down when Bobby stormed into the kitchen. He stalked over to Jubilee and leaned in close.

"I hate you."

She made wide, adorable kitten eyes at him.

"Still do."

She made wide, adorable kitten eyes and a pouty mouth.

"Still do."

She took the box of Sugar Bombs from Angelo and held them out to Bobby, making kitten eyes, a pouty mouth, and a sad little whimper.

Bobby held on a second or two before cracking up and accepting a bowlful of calorific fun.

"You're a jerk, Bobby."

"I know."

Angelo looked from one to the other. He always felt as if he was missing something while he was around those two. He sighed. Weird as they were, at least they knew that they had someone to screw around with. Sometimes it really sucked, not having someone who was into the same things he was. The closest he and the rest of the team came to shared interests was an almost disturbing obsession with the movie Labyrinth. Even Monet evinced a childlike fascination with the characters, especially, for some unknown reason, Mr. Worm...

Angelo shook his head violently. He'd actually almost fallen asleep in the midst of chewing the bagel he'd pulled out. He tried to remember what he'd been thinking about, but that shake must have shook it right out of his head.

"Ya got yer stuff packed yet, Jubecita?" He asked, looking down at his bagel. He must've been sleepier than he thought- he hadn't even noticed that it was an onion one.

"Yup. Just gotta eat, get dressed, and slather on the sunblock." She looked at the snow outside the window. "Huh. That sounds kinda weird here, doesn't it." She grinned at him before peering into the box at the pitiful remainders of the Sugar Bombs, then upended it over her mouth. Chomping happily, she searched for something to take the place of her precious cereal. Turning around, she found Monet standing behind her, holding out a packet of S'more flavored Pop-Tarts.

"Thanks, babe!" She smiled at Monet and popped her breakfast into the toaster.

Monet sat down next to Angelo and stared at his onion bagel. She frowned. Onion?

Emma breezed into the kitchen. She had already been up to drink a pot of coffee and finish preparations for her trip. "Everybody ready to go?" She asked, receiving a scattering of tired grunts in reply. "Good! meet you out by the cars in half an hour." There, that did it. Eyes wide, the students present scrambled for their rooms, desperate to take their showers and get dressed.

* * * * *

"Moooooo-neeeeet!!!" A whine had so much more effect when it was uttered by Jubilation Lee. "Lemmee in! I gotta go!"

Monet opened the door so fast that Jubilee almost fell in. She shoved Monet out of the way and slammed the door. Monet huffed and turned around, bumping into Daria.

"Oh, good! Monet, I need help!" Daria grabbed her arm and started hauling Monet to her room. "I need a swimsuit! Do you have a spare one?"

Monet, stumbling along behind, straightened herself out and said, "Of course. I have one for every day of the month, as Jubes would say. What color?"

Daria stopped, thinking. She screwed up her face, then said, "Plaid?"

Monet rolled her eyes. "You know, anyone else would be at a total impasse. However..." Reaching her room, she opened a drawer and pulled out a tasteful orange-and-yellow plaid bikini. "... I am not 'anyone'." She smiled and handed it over.

Daria went into the bathroom to change while Jubilee wandered in, already in a glittery white suit and cutoffs. "Lotion help." She handed the bottle to Monet, who squeezed some into the palm of her hand. It figured- even her sunblock was glittery. She grinned to herself as she rubbed it on. It was kinda pretty, actually... in fact, it would probably look pretty nice with her new white two-piece...

"I'm ready!" Daria said, as she stepped out of the bathroom. "How do I look?"

Monet and Jubilee just allowed their jaws to drop. "Argh! No fair!" Jubilee said, taking in a surprising amount of never-before-seen curviness. "I want to look like that!"

Monet managed to pull together enough to throw a pillow at Daria. "She's right! How come you never said you look as good as I do?" (A good dose of self-confidence is healthy for anyone.)

Daria looked down. "Well, I never really thought about it. But, I gotta admit, once I got into this, I noticed that I look pretty good. Plus, I got a good ass into the bargain!" and she flipped around and struck a pose, just as Angelo walked in looking for his Beastie Boys tank, which Jubilee had just commenced pulling over her head. He took one look at Daria, then let his glance slide farther down, before keeling over onto the floor.

The girls looked at him, then at each other.

"Cool." Daria said. "I think I like this." She grinned at the others before Monet whopped her with another pillow.

* * * * *

"Okay, now you have our cell-phone numbers-"

"On speed dial!!"

"- on speed dial, thank you, M, as well as the-"

"Emergency numbers!"

"-emergency numbers, thank you, Angelo, also, don't forget-"

"Triple A!"

"Thank you, Jubilee. Now-"

<<*Be good!*>>

"- be good, thank you, Jono, and we'll see you when we get back." Emma grabbed her white duster and headed for the door. With Paige in Kentucky and the other students, together with Artie and Leech, off to Florida for a fortnight, she and Sean were free to go on separate vacations, alone, by themselves, without anyone else, even. Emma allowed herself a slight smile and sigh as she envisioned the two teenager-free weeks ahead.

"Cabo Blanco, here I come." She murmured happily.

* * * * *

Thanks to Gateway, it only took them ten minutes before the pristine beaches of northern Florida spread out before them.

"Wow," Daria said as Jono parked their jeep on the side of the road. "It's gorgeous." She turned around and grabbed her towel before scurrying off to jump in the water.

"Hey!" Jubilee yelled before taking off after her. "No fair getting a head start!"

Monet sighed. She loved Jubilee, she really did, but sometimes she showed just the tiniest bit of immaturity. She watched as Angelo took off after them. Turning to Jono, she asked, "Will you be all right with the boys?" as she gestured towards Artie and Leech.

<<*Aye, we'll be fine. Go have fun.*>>

Monet picked up a towel and walked sedately towards the others, who were already embroiled in the midst of a fierce water battle.

* * * * *

Leech looked up at the sky. It was after lunch, and he and Artie had just finished building the Greatest Sand Castle Ever Seen in the Whole Entire Universe and Beyond. Looking behind him, he spotted Monet, Jubilee, Daria, and Angelo sunning on the beach. To his right, Jono was sitting on a lawn chair. He looked asleep. Reaching over, he added just one more seaweed to the 'lawn' outside the castle, then said, "Leech want to explore."

Artie projected an image of the two of them in safari garb, traipsing through a wild jungle.

Leech's eyes widened. "Yeah!" He said excitedly. The two abandoned their castle, pulled on their shoes, and struck off down the beach.

* * * * *

"Ugh." Jubilee groaned as she stumbled out of the water. That one last swim may have been too much. She felt as if her legs were full of sand. Dragging herself over to where Monet was snoozing on the sand, she wrung some of the water out of her hair and onto M's belly.

"Yeargh!" Monet screeched. She grabbed Jubilee's legs and pulled her down. "You'll pay for that!" She started tickling her unmercifully.

Angelo cracked an eye. "Man, you two are noisy." He rolled over and stood up, stretching out his back. (Pun fully intended.) "I'm hungry. Let's hop back in the Jeep and find some fast food and a hotel."

Jubilee and Monet quit fighting and stood up as well. Trudging off towards the Jeep, they saw Daria and Jono running towards them.

<<*The boys are missing!*>> Jono projected.

"What?" The three of them were brought up short by the news.

"When did you find out?!" Monet asked frantically.

"Just now, when I went over. He was asleep-" Daria glared at Jono, who had the grace to look sheepish, "-and the boys were gone. I called, but we couldn't find them."

"Could they have been kidnapped?" Angelo asked, staring up and down the road. It hadn't really been that busy, but still...

"No." Jubilee said. She was staring at the boys' sand castle. "Look, you can see their footprints." She sighed in relief. "All we gotta do is follow them, thank goodness. C'mon!"

The teens quickly started running down the beach, following the tiny prints. After awhile they slowed, then stopped altogether. It had gotten too dark to see anything.

"Jeez, how far could two little boys go?" Jubilee wondered aloud.

"I wouldn't have thought 'this far', that's fer sure." Angelo said. "Maybe we shou-" He stopped speaking abruptly. "Did you feel that?"

"What?" The others asked, but they were soon rewarded with an answer- the sand dune that they were standing on suddenly shifted.

"Whoa." Daria said, frozen in place. "That's not really normal, is it."

Without warning, the Dune suddenly rose upward, dumping them all to the water's edge. It made a grumbling sound as it rose.

<<*What the-*>> Jono said, his forehead creasing.

"What?" Monet asked, gazing at the Dune with more than a little trepidation.

<>

The others looked at him as if he was crazy, for many good reasons.

"Uh, Jono, I'm kinda afraid to ask, but- what did it say?" Jubilee screwed up her face, in the way one does when one already knows the answer.

<<*It says it's going to eat us.*>>

*to be continued