Noel had put together a ragtag group of misfits and Mutants for one specfic purpose. Moving his parents and grandmother out of the 'ancestral' home and into the safety of the Institute. His grandfather, Oscar, had bought the property in his twenties not long after meeting a lovely Irish woman who would become Noel and Scott's grandmother Cordelia. Noel's mother and aunt had grown up in that house, and later Noel and Scott would do the same. When Oscar died, they moved back in to provide his grandmother Cordelia with a presence. The house had been big enough for all of them and many fond memories were had.

And so, looking at the four bedroom house now brought nothing but a sense of guilt and anguish for the psychopomp. He knew what had to be done, he'd been putting it off for as long as he could, using Christmas as an excuse, then the new year. But General Ross had landed on the lawn with Pietro in tow. That made Noel's family a target. If something happened to them due to his and Scott's failings, Noel would never forgive himself.

The stoner had made the drive in solitary. His only company in the form of the Black Hound that had made itself Noel's familiar and the ghost of John Proudstar who kept himself busy, leaving Noel to his own thoughts as they cruised up the highway towards Tupper Lake. The Institute possessing its own lake may yet be a selling point to convince his family to move.

"Alright... Scooby. No jumping up at my grandma." Noel warned, scratching the giant black hound behind one of their pointy ears. Scooby tilted their head and whined softly in protest but soon leapt up from the floor and bounded off the old shortbus when the doors released the pressure and opened. Noel followed suit with a heavy sigh and made his way to the door. He hadn't called ahead, he didn't want to give Ross a chance to swoop in and kidnap them.

Noel opened the door, and made his way inside. Counting down until Mickey arrived with the twins to help shift the boxes they'd no doubt assembled. Noel could stuff a lot of it into Marilyn, but some of the more urgent aspects of his parents and grandmothers life would need to go with them to the Institute. Something was different about the house, a strange quietness had fallen over it.

"Hey!" Noel called out half-heartedly. "We need to talk."

"Noel? Is that you? What are you doing here?" Andrew, Noel's dad poked his around the kitchen door, glasses sliding down the nose as they always did. Noel and Scott both took a little more after their shared dad than they did their own mothers. Strong genes and all that.

The hound trotted inside and immediately started dancing on the spot as they saw a new face to slather in drool. Noel put a gentle hand on the dogs head and told him to wait. "I gotta move you all. I've been putting it off and... Look, it's not safe. I don't want Ross to come swooping in and use you against me."

"What? You want us to leave?" Andrew questioned, furrowing his brow and stepping into the frame. Noel grimaced. He loved his dad, but they'd often butt heads. Noel was, after all, a 'hippie stoner' despite all he'd accomplished. "We're not leaving. Why would you even suggest that?"

"Because General Thundercunt Ross will come and kill you all just to have a chance of bringing me down." Noel was blunt, perhaps too blunt. But to Andrew, it didn't matter.

"You're smoking too much, Noel. That's not going to happen." Andrew was dismissive, perhaps if Scott had been instructing

"Of course it will. You think they're just going to roll over because you're human? No! I'm out there humilating them on repeat. I'm a problem and they know it." Noel had left Scott a voicemail. Perhaps he'd sprint over from Nevada and tell their dad off. The two had a tighter relationship, but then Noel was always a mother's boy. "They landed on the front lawn for fucks sake!"

"Enough." Came the sharp tongue from Cordelia, walking down the staircase beside Noel. She gave the two boys a stern look, and then softened up enough to hug Noel tightly, loving her grandson as though she had brought him into this world herself. Okay, maybe a grandmother's boy was more accurate.

"I see you brought a friend. A big one too." Cordelia smiled and leaned over, taking the dogs face in her hands and kissing them on the head. Scooby's tail swung wide, thumping the wall and rattling the framed pictures that hung along it.

"Where's mom?" Noel asked his grandmother. Cerys had yet to appear, which was unlike her amongst the usual arguments between Noel and his dad, who had slunk back into the kitchen.

"She's running an after school club. Substituting for Mr. Buttersby." Cerys looked up at Noel, and was promptly the victim of a great big sloppy kiss from Scooby. leaving her hair stuck to her face.

"Alright. I'll have to go and get her. But I'm dead serious about moving you." Noel sighed, wishing this hadn't become more complicated than it already had been.

"I know. I figured after hearing that disembodied voice, you'd come sooner or later."

Noel stood there in silence, staring at his Grandmother. She had heard the word? She was a Mutant? Why had it skipped a generation? Why had her gene gone so unnoticed by General Ross and his ilk at the MRD? What even was her mutation? The moment Mickey arrived, Noel was shoving Cordelia through the sling ring to go and have tea with Charles Xavier whilst they packed up her greenhouse and everything else of importance. He wasn't about to let her get dragged off to General Thundercunt Ross's summer camp for troubled Mutants.

"Oh god." Noel muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright. You two need to pack. Prioritise clothes and then do treasured items after. Shove it into Marilyn. When Mickey arrives, we'll... We'll go from there."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Andrew protested, walking back into the corridor with a cup of coffee in hand.

"Pull your head out of your fucking ass for once and listen to what I have to say. Every day there are hundreds if not thousands of Mutants being slaughtered by the Government and they don't care about collateral. They will pluck you from the house and vivisect you just to send the videotape to me and make sure I can't fight back. If you want to stay and spend your short life being tortured then so be it, but I'm getting Mom and Grandma out of here."

Noel's outburst left his company in quiet, including Proudstar. The stoner looked between his dad, and his grandma, and threw his hands up into the air. "Let's go, Gran. I'll help you pack."

"Alright." Cordelia spoke softly, putting a gentle hand on Noel's arm before she turned and walked back up the stairs, leaving Andrew with his coffee and unhappy glare. Noel stared at them, and then followed suit. He'd stay up there, packing with Cordelia until Mickey, the twins and anyone else they roped in arrived.