Sorry for the long wait for this update! :/ I'm a much self-hated procrastinator Anyways, this is my chapter, as you can tel as it's in Jen's POV, enjoy!

simplywonderful88: Thank you :) At the moment we're keeping this story alive for the characters, lol, it's getting better! Keep on reading ;)

WritersWand and Jojo/Spacewolf

Backbone

Chapter 11

My eyes flutter open to the sunlight streaming through the window in the back part of the RV, where the bunks were. I looked over at my alarm clock. 10:00. I yawned and sat up in bed…banging my head against the top bunk. I cried out and fell back down against the pillow, rubbing my head. I slowly pulled myself of the bunk and looked around. Mickey, Devilyn, and Kevin weren't in here anymore, they must have woken up. (Dad had slept on the couch, Grandpa in the passengers' seat of the RV)

I groggily made my way out to the main part of the RV, in my pajama shorts, which were pretty much female boxers, and a tank top. I was not a morning person. Not hungry—I never am in the morning, and don't go scolding me about not eating the most important meal of the day, I can't eat in the morning, it makes me want to throw up—I head to sit on the couch, but someone blocked my way.

A pale kid wearing black pants, black shoes, and a gray wife beater, a leather jacket was folded up on the side of the couch. He had black hair in which on the left side was spiked up and shaven underneath; though it was starting to grow back, on the right side hair flopped down semi normally. I would probably guess him to be seventeen or eighteen. He was pretty hot, I had to admit.

He had eyes only for Devilyn. I could kind of see why, with her near perfect skin, long, red hair, and pretty green eyes I would probably find her just as hot if I was a dude as I find this new kid hot. Devilyn was holding the fridge door open while holding a water bottle, so I reached by her and grabbed a can of soda, before pushing by the boy to sit on the couch.

I opened my can of soda and took a sip. Mickey was sitting at the table, eating breakfast, as Dad and Grandpa Max. Kevin was walking towards the front of the RV.

"I'm going to start driving Gramps, to get on the move, you explain about the kid to the rest of them, oh, and Devilyn, you should probably close the fridge door," Kevin said before disappearing out of sight.

Devilyn closed the fridge door, holding her water bottle by her side, she opens her mouth to speak but the boy moves first.

"Wait, I have to go check something," he said, leaving the RV, slamming the door behind him. There were loud noises and the RV shook for a few moments before the door opened and the boy walked back in. "Had to make sure my motorcycle was attached to the top of the RV properly, don't want it sliding off and causing an accident on the highway," he grinned as the RV started moving, Kevin driving.

"I didn't know you had a motorcycle?" Devilyn asked.

"Yeah, it was parked on the curb, I thought you would have seen it last night Red," he winked at her.

She shifted uncomfortably, which seemed strange for Dev. "I like motorcycles…"

I yawned. "I love motorcycles! What type?" I asked.

"Harley Davidson," the kid informed me, grinning.

I nodded. "Those are my favorite, by the way, I'm Jen, who are you? Obviously you know Devilyn, a school friend or something?"

The kid shook his head. "No, I met her, Kevin, and Ben at that motorcycle joint a while back. I was with Jojo,"

"Is she your mom?"

The kid burst out laughing. "Jojo? No, my mother died from cancer when I was little, my dad was an abusive drunk, I ran away from home when I was twelve, Jojo found me,"

I felt a twinge of pain toward the kid, but I didn't say anything, didn't want to bring up any painful memories. "What did you say your name was again?"

"I didn't,"

"What was it then?"

"Cole,"

"Cool,"

Grandpa Max finished his bowl of cereal and slowly got up to put it in the sink. "Well, it seems as if Cole's done all the explanation…he'll be traveling with us for a while, why don't you all talk and get to know each other?" he started making his way toward the passengers' seat.

I looked over to where Devilyn and Cole stood, and it looked as if they couldn't tear their eyes off of each other. God, it looked as if he was undressing her with his eyes. I shook my head, really disliking my dirty mind at the moment. I grinned. "Oh yeah, we're sure gonna get to know each other,"

Devilyn shot me an angry glare and I smiled innocently at her.

Grandpa Max shook his head and disappeared from view into the front, driving part, of the RV.

.

Dad and Mickey sat on the couch absorbed in some TV show as Devilyn, Cole, and I sat on the booth that surrounded the table. Devilyn and I had both gotten dressed out of our pajamas. I wore a pair of black soccer shorts, a white t-shirt, and black flip flops. I neglected to brush my short black hair and it was probably a mess, I didn't look in the mirror today, oh well.

"So, Cole, everyone's neglected to tell us why you're coming with us, care to explain?" I asked.

"You guys need someone to protect you, so I'm here," Cole said, cockily.

Devilyn rolled her eyes. "He was stealing alien tech from the back of the RV last night, I caught him,"

My eyes widened. "What?"

"A guy needs to make money somehow," Cole shrugged. "But the old man, Max, he came outside later after Devilyn went back in and we made a deal of sorts, he would give me housing and food, to keep me off the streets, if I helped him, you know, a favor for a favor,"

I nodded. "Okay…"

.

All of a sudden Dad shot up from the couch. Mickey sat on the couch, confused. Devilyn, Cole, and I stopped talking to look at Dad.

"This is all really stupid! What are we doing running away from Morningstar when we should be running toward him! We need to fight him! And end this for all, we're not going to get anywhere by just running, he'll find us eventually!" Ben cried out.

"Well, I just got here, but we have been talking a lot, and it seems as if it's you guy's goal—ours I suppose now—is to protect this kid,"—he nodded toward Mickey—"and a fight against a powerful whatever he is doesn't seem like it will go so well at the quite moment, seeing as how half of our…team is hardly equipped to fight," Cole explained.

I slunk back down in my seat, my arms crossed over my chest. I didn't say anything, as much as I hated it, he was correct, or at least Mickey and I weren't, not so sure about Devilyn.

"…I can fight," Devilyn said simply.

Cole turned to look at her. "You are a Levin, and I've heard a lot about them from Jojo," he laughed.

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult but my dad liked Jojo so thanks I suppose,"

"Well if you guys don't do anything then I will!" Ben exclaimed, walking toward the door.

"But Dad, your watch broke…" I trailed.

"I can still fight without my watch!" Ben snapped, looking at Jen as he opened the door.

"Dad!" I cried out as he took a step out and fell out of the RV and out onto the highway.

My eyes widened as I stood up from the bench, but Cole was up first and he went to close the door, so nothing else would fall out.

"What's going on back there!" came Kevin's voice before he emerged from the driving part of the RV.

"Dad! I thought you were driving?" Devilyn asked.

"Shit! I was!" Kevin turned back before Grandpa Max spoke:

"I may be an old man but my reflexes are still pretty quick, when you jumped up I jumped out of the passengers' seat and took control of the wheel. I got this, you find out what happened," Grandpa called from the front of the RV.

Whew…that was some bad thinking on Kevin's part, but who could blame him? Something was happening, and his daughter could have gotten hurt.

"OK—what's up?" Kevin looked around. "And where's the twerp?"

"My dad?" I asked.

"Ben?" Devilyn asked. "He walked out of the RV, no literally, he just walked out,"

Kevin's eyes widened as he looked toward the window. Automatically, we all did. We had driven some since he walked out, but we could still see him, he was small, but we could definitely tell he was trying to run to catch up with the RV. Thank God, he wasn't hurt.

"Should we go back and get him?" I asked.

"I don't think we should, he weighs us down more than he helps us," Devilyn said.

Kevin frowned, as Ben seemed to stop and walk to the side of the highway, walking away from the RV, toward a highway exit. "It doesn't seem as if we need to anymore," he said.

My eyes widened. "We're not just going to let him go are we? Where the hell are we anyways? What's going to happen to him, he is my dad!" I cried.

Kevin sighed. "As much as I hate to say it your dad is an adult and can take care of himself, he'll be fine, he stopped chasing after us so he obviously must know what he's going to do, or is figuring it out," Kevin explained.

I nodded slowly. "Okay…" I trailed.

"I figure I should probably go explain this all to Max now," Kevin said walking to the passengers' seat before sitting down and buckling up.

.

We should have probably been a bit more worried about my dad then we were, but oh well. It was early afternoon and I was beginning to get hungry. Hopefully Kevin and Devilyn have good food for lunch in here.

"Hey Dev, do you have food here, like some kind of lunch meat in the fridge or something?" I asked her.

Devilyn nodded. "Sure, go help yourself,"

I cautiously got up in the moving RV to open the fridge. I spotted some slices of ham and began to reach for them when Grandpa Max's voice called out from the drivers' seat.

"We're running low on gas so we're making a pit stop at this exit, I think I see a gas station," he informed us as the RV turned and began driving up the exit ramp.

Of course, me being lazy did not want to make my food. "Hey, maybe I can buy something at the gas station," I said closing the fridge door.

Grandpa Max turned his head back slightly. "No, we're on the run here Jennifer; we need to get in there, get gas, and get out as quick as possible,"

"And can't that also mean gas for us as well?" Cole asked.

Kevin put his arms behind his head. "I don't see the issue. It takes a while to gas up this thing, why can't they go into the building, get something to eat, and hang out?"

Grandpa max sighed. "Fine then, but as soon as we're done, we need to get back on the road," he said turning into a gas station and parking at one of the pumps.

In need of some fresh air, Cole, Devilyn, Mickey, and I raced out of the RV, stumbling over each other as we went. Cole immediately began climbing up the back of the RV.

"What the hell are you doing Cole?" Devilyn asked.

"Getting my motorcycle Red, when we go I thought I would follow after you, I want some fresh air, I want to drive my bike," he laughed.

Devilyn laughed. "Whatever,"

Cole lowered down his motorcycle then hopped off the top of the RV. He pushed his motorcycle over to the side of the building before resting it against the wall and turning to face Devilyn, Mickey, and I, rubbing his hands together. "So are we going to go in or not?"

We walked in the gas station and began roaming around the small store, few people were in it. We were in a small town so there was a man eating a slice of pizza and watching a baseball game on TV, a woman behind the counter, and a small child rummaging his pockets for chains while standing at a counter with cookies. It smelled of gasoline and Lysol.

I walked over to an aisle to decide what I wanted to get, as Mickey stood awkwardly by the door, Cole leaned against the wall and Devilyn stood a ways off looking awkward. As I was deciding on whether I wanted a Slim Jim, a small bag of chips or two, or a candy bar I heard someone scream.

I whipped around and saw a tall, blond man about Dad's age holding Mickey by his shirt collar. Mickey struggled to get out of his—who I assumed was his dad because they looked alike—grip.

"Now Mickey, Don't you love your father? Come along, let's get going, we can go eat dinner at your favorite restaurant and get away from these filthy people," Morningstar said.

"Let me go!" Mickey cried kicking and squirming in the air as Morningstar held him.

"I am not filthy; I take a shower everyday thank you very much!" I cried out, releasing a large blast of pink mana from my palms that shot toward Morningstar and sent him sprawling backwards into the wall, Mickey collapsed on to the floor and quickly jumped up, before running out the door.

Devilyn and Cole quickly got into action, knowing a fight when they saw one. Cole said something to Devilyn and ran out the door after Mickey. Devilyn put her hands down on a metal pipe on the door and soon became entirely covered in a silver metal.

Morningstar pulled himself up as Devilyn rushed to him. As she swung her fist at him he grabbed her wrist. "You're Levin's daughter aren't you, Devilyn? I've heard much about you,"

Devilyn snarled and wrestled her wrist away from him, kicking him between the legs. He cried out and doubled over. I winced, with her being metal, the foot that kicked him was metal, and that area on a guy was already sensitive, so OW.

While he was distracted I used pink mana to wrap around his wrists and ankles, holding them together. I lifted him in the air and nodded to the store clerk as I moved outside with the man. Devilyn followed after me.

"Someone's been practicing," she whispered to me.

I shrugged, concentrating on holding Morningstar. "I practiced a little last night but, yeah…it's not that hard, this that is,"

Alas, my concentration broke and Morningstar was free, he jumped up sprang toward us before he was tackled to the ground by a tan, RV colored, Kevin, who punched his face in, not only once, but twice, and would have more if Morningstar didn't push him off and get to his feet, rushing to the store clerk that ran out of the building and put his hands on her shoulders.

"What are you doing? Unhand me!" she cried out, struggling, then slowly her struggling ceased and her face drained of color before she turned towards me and Devilyn. Morningstar turned back to face Kevin.

"Noble efforts Levin, protecting the children? Or do I suspect an ulterior motive; leftover jealousy of how you're ex-wife loved me more than she ever did you?"

Kevin scowled, and lunged towards Morningstar, but I couldn't watch them fight, I had a newly made 'zombie' to take care of. Devilyn ran to help her father fight the powerful Morningstar as Grandpa Max came out with a ray gun of sorts.

I lifted my arms and blasted the 'zombie' with a spray of pink mana darts, sending her slamming into a telephone pole by the sidewalk. I piled mana over mana on top of her, drowning her underneath it before I heard a scream of rage and spun around to see Mickey standing about ten feet away, looking extremely overwhelmed and afraid.

Suddenly there was a deafening explosion and the ground underneath my feet began shaking and splitting in two. I jumped out of the way and backed up, noticing a non-metal Devilyn get pushed back my Morningstar, tripping and almost falling into the crevice before Cole luckily ran over to her in time, reached over the then narrow crevice and pulled her over before she fell in.

I noticed Mickey wasn't moving and if the crevice kept growing he would surely fall in, I ran over to him and grabbed him by his shirt collar, dragging him over to the sidewalk, away from the crevice.

His eyes widened when I let go of him. "Did I do that?"

"No, it was the fifty foot alien behind you," I said, rolling my eyes.

The kid jumped and looked behind his shoulder, to only see the crevice which stopped growing finally. It was nearly a hundred feet wide and several hundred feet long. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Grandpa max waving to me, telling me to get out of here. He, Kevin, and Morningstar were on the other side of the crevice, with the RV and gas station. Before I could react I felt a strong hand pick me up and host me onto the very back of a motorcycle.

Cole's motorcycle

Devilyn was in front of me, Cole in front of her. Just then Cole picked up Mickey by the arm and set him down in front of him, on the handlebars. Then Cole sped off, as fast as the bike could go, down the highway, Mickey screaming on the bike's handlebars, Cole looked around and over Mickey as he drove, Devilyn holding on to Cole's waist tightly, and me behind Devilyn, nearly falling off the back, screaming as I held on to Devilyn's waist.

"I hate motorcycles!" I screamed as we went speeding down the highway.

.

Finally, after a long and terrifying trip by motorcycle, we were far enough away and Cole pulled into the parking lot of a cafe. Cole pulled into a parking spot and I hopped out, automatically falling to the ground. Devilyn and Cole climbed off the motorcycle as Mickey slowly scrambled off the handlebars.

"Come on guys let's get inside," Cole said as he began walking to the door, Devilyn behind him.

I jumped up and raced to the door, getting in behind the two of them, Mickey behind me. We found a booth and sat down. Cole offered Devilyn to slide in before him and she rolled her eyes before sliding in. Cole sat down and I sat down opposite them, sliding over to the window so Mickey could sit.

"OK, so what are we gonna do?" Devilyn asked.

"I want a smoothie," I said looking at a menu.

"Jen!" Devilyn cried.

"What? I want a smoothie!"

"We just got out of a battle with the twerp's dad, ran away leaving my dad and Max with Morningstar and who knows how they're faring now!"

"I understand that! You think I'm not concerned for them? But it's not like we can do anything at the precise moment, so why can't I want a goddamn smoothie?"

"Guys, shut up and watch," Cole said pointing to a TV positioned high on the wall above me. I turned around in the booth, my back against the table, and craned my neck up to watch.

The scene on the TV showed what was left of a destroyed gas station and a fake blond lady in front of the camera with a microphone.

"This is what is left after what probably the strangest thing in Illinois history happened today," she began.

Illinois, so that's where we are. That's somewhat helpful.

"Two men, probably around the same age, and an elderly man were seen fighting in this area, after a while one man ran off and the other man and elderly man clambered inside of a RV to begin following after him. They were fighting with strange techniques and strange, even alien if you may call it, technology. The old man had the strange guns, and the younger man he was with was made fully out of metal. The other one seemed to control energy, if that seems possible. Earlier, three teenagers and a young boy were seen leaving the scene of the crime on a motorcycle after the earth opened up, one girl was also metal, and the other spit pink plasma out of her hands. There were two deaths and one casualty, the young boy is being taken to the hospital with minor injuries. We will keep on researching and inform you if anything like this comes up again," the lady explained, as pictures and short video clips were shown.

"Where do you think they went?" I asked turning back in the booth to face Devilyn and Cole.

"I don't know—oh Maxx!" Devilyn cried out, burying her face in her palms.

"Grandpa can take care of himself Dev, but really, I didn't think you would ever be that broken because of something like this," I said to her.

"No you idiot! Maxx! My skeleanimal bulldog! He's in the RV! All by his dead self!"

"But it's just a stuffed animal?" Cole asked.

"…Maxx is a special skeleanimal. My dad bought him from a weird Gypsy lady and well, he's not exactly inanimate." Devilyn explained.

Cole nodded slowly, taking this all into consideration. "That's cute," he said.

"What's cute?" Devilyn snapped.

"That you're so attached to your stuffed animal, it's cute,"

"It's true! For God's sake Cole—"

Suddenly the lady on TV spoke again. "Oh!" she said tripping over something. The camera focused in one a pile of bones.

Devilyn became teary eyed. "No—it can't be—"

Then the bones began to move and spin around and form something—Maxx, a small bulldog. "Oh, what's this?" the lady asked wide eyed, backing away.

Devilyn's eyes widened. "He must have fallen out of the RV! Maxx! Oh Maxx you can find me can't you?"

Maxx on the television barked at the lady, jumped up, and spun around in a circle as if chasing his own short tail.

"You may be weird, a bit creepy, and seem impossible, but you're kind of a cute fellow," the newscaster lady said.

"Yeah! And he belongs to me!" Devilyn screamed at the TV.

Suddenly Maxx took off running, somehow managing to jump over the crevice. Well, he was a dead dog, and not even supposed to be real, so, I guess it'll make sense for him to be able to do the impossible.

"That's right boy! Come and find me!" Devilyn exclaimed, jumping up and over the booth and out of the Café.

The rest of us jump up and run after her.

Outside, she is standing by the motorcycle, breathing hard. "For the next however long it should take for him to get to me, keep an eye out for a small dead dog…" she trailed.

Cole nodded as he climbed onto his motorcycle. "Come on, there's a Walmart across the street, we can get a sidecar there and some food," he said picking up Mickey and putting him on the handlebars. Mickey complained a little, but knew it was necessary. Devilyn climbed on behind Cole and me behind her.

Cole began driving and a few moments later we turned into the Walmart parking lot and parked on the side, by Walmart's right wall. We all clambered off the motorcycle and started walking inside.

"Wait, we have money right?" Devilyn asked.

"I have a credit card," Mickey said.

"Rich kid," Devilyn mumbled.

"Hey, Devil, I thought we were all in this together,"

"Guys, stop fighting for once, and Mickey, I wouldn't advise using that, I know your Dad can already track you by your energy, but let's not make it worse and let him be able to track you by your credit card usage as well," Cole explained.

"I have some money," I said.

"Me too," Devilyn added.

Cole nodded. "As do I…but if it's not enough for everything, we can just use it to buy the sidecar, hook it up to my motorcycle, then go back inside, steal some food, then run off," Cole explained too us, making sure we all understood before letting us go.

OK, we entered Walmart and managed to find a sidecar the appropriate size that seated two people. It was twenty dollars, which left us with about only two dollars left all together. We dragged the sidecar out to Cole's motorcycle together and Cole attached it as we talked.

When he was done he spoke. "OK Jen, you're gonna have to ride with Mickey in the sidecar,"

"What? I don't want to ride with the little kid!" I cried.

"Do you want to sit behind Devilyn and almost fall off?"

"Why can't she sit with Mickey?"

"Because frankly you're smaller than her and I thought it would be more comfortable and not cramped with you and Mickey instead of her and him,"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Fine,"

We walked back into Walmart, as coolly as possible. We ran throughout the store, grabbing food. I picked up a package of purple grapes—what? I wanted grapes!—and stuffed inside of my baseball cap I always grab when I leave the house/RV. I made sure it was tight before I put it back on my head. I made my way to the front of the store and tiptoed out, so my hat would be above the scanners and they wouldn't beep.

But of course, Mickey had to run out of the store, arms full with boxes of Oreos. That idiot! I took off my hat and held it as I ran to Cole's motorcycle, Mickey behind me. I scrambled in the side car, pulling Mickey in next to me. I held the grapes in my lap as Mickey put the Oreo boxes in front of him.

Devilyn and Cole came running out of the store, as everything beeped. Cole was holding multiple liters of soda in his arms and Devilyn held a big box of Goldfish, actually, Whales, but same thing. They dumped it nearly on our feet before swinging their legs over the motorcycle and then suddenly we were off, going as fast as possible, to escape being caught.

As we moved I rearranged the items so the liters of soda were between Mickey and I and Devilyn's box of Whales was at my feet, as Mickey's Oreos were at his. I held the large package of grapes.

We were flying down the highway when suddenly Devilyn screamed. "Maxx!"

I looked over and saw the dog leaping towards her, landing in her arms. She grinned and snuggled him close to her chest. Then, remembering she was on a motorcycle put one arm around Cole's waist in order to not fall off, as the other arm held Maxx.

.

After well clearing that city—and probably state—Cole turned onto an exit ramp. He turned into the large parking lot of what looked like a mall and parked into a random parking space by a tall light post.

Mickey and I remained in the sidecar…it was actually pretty comfortable. Cole stood up off of his motorcycle and went to lean/sit on a low ledge of the light post next to the sidecar. Devilyn situated herself on the motorcycle as on may sit on the edge of a couch, Maxx on her lap.

We dug into the Whales.

See that button? Click it :3 It'll make us happy.

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