Chapter 24 ~ Home Sweeeeeet Home

~Fiona~

The next morning, I hugged my parents goodbye, promising to visit them again soon in Wisconsin. We took off from the top of the hotel where we had stayed the night before. I decided that it would be wisest to Change into a size that was just big enough to carry a passenger. We had left all our belongings back in Chicago, so I didn't have to carry any more minifridges. Thank goodness.

We traveled all the way back through boring pennsylvania, with one brief bit of relief - we managed to catch an out-of-control tanker truck traveling down the highway. The rest of the way sounded something like this:

Raven: "Are we there yet?"

Me: "Raven, you just asked that five minutes ago."

Raven: "Yeah, but that was five minutes ago. I could have sworn the trip to New York was a lot faster than this."

Me: "Raven, we are right where we should be. Relax."

Dane: "I need to use the bathroom"

Me: *facepalm* (faceclaw? facefoot? Whatever.)

Finally, the Chicago skyline came into view on the horizon. We winged our way toward downtown, occasionally catching glimpses of Kerata, streaking through the streets below. I was sure she had already circled the city several times, waiting for us.

I flew down to land on the CNA center, a big, stocky, brilliant red building a few blocks from the Sears tower. Honestly, it looked like a giant parking garage from the outside. There was a white blur, and Kerata slid to a halt next to us, her hooves glowing a brilliant blue and hissing slightly. I guessed that her 'ice powers' were the only thing that kept them from melting under the friction of running so fast.

A smallish patch of green disentangled itself from her mane. "Did you really have to play 'chicken' with that train? I mean, was that really necessary? And next time, maybe don't use the El Train tunnels to get downtown. You just about shut the entire sub system down with all that ice!"

Kerata gave a very horsey snort, and rolled her eyes. "Come on, you know it was fun! Besides, I cleaned up all the ice, like, three seconds later, and as for playing chicken with trains, well..." she grinned at him as he flapped down to the ground. "I guess it worked."

He looked confused. (at least as confused as a small, green, acid-spitting lizard can look) "What worked?"

I shook my head, interrupting their discussion. "So, who's up for moving in?"

Instantly, a chorus of voices agreed. Except for Duncan, who was still plaintively asking, 'No, seriously, what worked?"

I shrank myself down to about the same size as Duncan, and we all took off for our new home, Dane riding Kerata, which made neither Duncan nor me particularly happy.

We all arrived nearly simultaneously several blocks away on the roof of our new home. I gathered everyone in a circle. "This is it, guys. Let's check out our new digs."

Grinning, we all crowded around a big, but inconspicuous concrete slab, which I pressed my claw to. Instantly, it slid back, to reveal a large hole in the ceiling of an even larger circular room. A ramp spiraled up around the outside, while the central hole remained wide enough for me to fly through, as long as I stayed about horse size or smaller. We all dove through the hole, Kerata and Dane taking the ramp, the rest of us flying straight to the floor.

The room had thick glass walls on three sides, the fourth side being solid, which showed other rooms such as a huge kitchen, a room that seemed to be set up as a lab, a lounge (complete with a huge TV and gaming systems), a 'techie' room, outfitted with computers, radio communications devices, radar, police scanners, and other state-of-the-art gadgets which looked like they belonged in the military. Pipes and tubes full of wires and huge, thick cables extended from the roof above us, where the huge antenna stood. Out the windows of the rooms, I could see the whole Chicago skyline laid out around us.

Peeking into the side with no glass, I found several private rooms down a long hallway, plus a huge bathroom, which was nearly big enough to live in by itself. I closed the door and turned back to the others. "Well guys, welcome home - to the Sears Tower".