Just as the sun was rising the train was forced to make an emergency stop. All the crew and passengers were throw from their beds or off their feet. In the boys room Rick picked himself off the floor unhurt, "Are you okay Bobby?"

"Yeah," Bobby got up and stretched. "Let's go make sure the girls are okay."

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Rick spared a thought for the fact that they were both in boxer shorts but he figured anyone they met in the hallway would be either just as badly dressed or not give a damn.

The door to the girl's room was only steps away but they passed a few people trying to make their way forward to see what had happened. Rick was curious too but he wanted to be sure the girls were safe first. Reaching the door he knocked, "It's us! Can we come in?"

"If it's just you two you can come in. We're not dressed," Rhonda's voice came back. Rick and Bobby went and Bobby locked the door behind them. Rick saw Rhonda still wrapping an ace bandage on Maria's ankle and shouted, "What happened? Can I do anything to help?"

"I'm okay Rick. I just twisted my ankle falling off the top bunk. Rhonda has it wrapped up and its feeling better already. I'm just sorry for her because she got to feel the pain too." She did look mostly okay Rick thought. The red nightshirt she was wearing reached to her knees so it might be hiding bruises but, except for her left leg, she was wasn't moving like anything hurt.

"Yeah, " Rhonda took up the story, "for awhile after we fell I thought it was my ankle that was twisted. I'll be glad when I learn to block this it gets in the way of helping. I also should take some first aid courses too. At least if I can treat wounds I won't feel quite so useless."

Rick turned to look at her, "You're not useless!" He started to say more then he saw she was wearing just a pair of white silk panties and his tirade faltered. He was getting set to start again when she giggled.

"Why the blush Rick? I'm flattered by both the emotion you started out with and the one that replaced it but you've seen it all before and I know how you feel about Maria," she paused to giggle again as both and Maria blushed, "so why would did me being topless throw you?"

Rick just shrugged, "It was different at the resort. I'm not sure how but it was."

Bobby answered for Rick who was unable to articulate his thought, "I think it's because you girls are in bedclothes of your own choosing. We didn't have much choice at the resort and we had even less choice before but knowing that all you sleep in is a scrap of white silk is ... sexy. To me too by the way." He smiled at her and Rick nodded, "I guess that's true." He turned to Maria, "Not that you don't always look great! I just ..." he trailed off.

She raised an eyebrow, "We'll go in to this wandering eye of yours later. For now do you know what happened?"

"No, we came straight here," Rick said. His stomach dropping, he wasn't looking forward to that little talk. Maybe by the time they could talk she'd have forgotten it? He decided it was worth a shot, "Bobby and I can go look but you should stay and rest your ankle and Rhonda should stay to guard you."

"Ha! You mean the girls should stay behind and let the manly men take care of things!" Rhonda looked genuinely upset.

"NO! You can sense people before they are visible and point them out to Maria before they get into the room and she can zap them if they're hostile but without you they might surprise her and even if they don't she won't know they are around until they come through the door or the window. You really are an important team member and I want you here to guard her because you're the best person for the job. We'll go forward because nobody will find anything unusual in that and we might learn something. I'm hoping we don't need to use our powers at all but I'm afraid our luck is not that good."

Rhonda smiled again, "Wow, these switches from fearless leader to gawking bashful boy and back are getting faster. You'll have to pardon me if sometimes I can't keep up." She stood up and said you know given our luck so far as a team you should practice developing tactics while staring." She started to shimmy making her breasts wobble in intriguing patterns, "Who said 'All war is deception'?"

"Sun Tzu, and stop trying to get me in trouble with Maria," Rick replied then winced when Maria corrected him.

"You mean 'more trouble'. If we're going to be dating I can't have you gawking at her nipples," Maria said then frowned, "especially if our luck for the past few days holds and we end up walking home naked or something."

"Right, well I'm just going to go check with the conductor. I'll be back." Rick left looking flustered and Bobby went with him. They met the conductor in the dining car. He looked scared and nervous and he was hiding it badly. "I have an announcement to make here then I'll go and make it to following cars." He cleared his throat, "Please remain calm. The train is not damaged, it has been stopped by robbers." There were gasps but before anyone started shouting or anything he held up his hands for silence and continued, "There is still no cause for alarm! They have said they plan to harm no one, they just want loot. Their leader states that as long as no one resists no one will be hurt. Please cooperate and the corporation will assist you in filing any insurance claims and take care of the police reports. One of them will be coming through shortly with a bag, please return to your staterooms and be ready to put your cash and jewelry in the bag. Please do not try to attack him as there are four more and they are all powerful mutants. They call themselves 'The Royal Flush Gang' and attacking them will just get us all hurt." He waited a beat then ended with, "That is all."

Rick and Bobby left the group who were all standing around asking each other things like "did he say mutants?" and "What can we do?" They headed back to the room and Rick knocked, "Are you decent? It's Rick and Bobby."

"No we aren't. Come in anyway!" Rhonda replied with a giggle.

They entered and told what the conductor said, "I think we should do it. There are more of them than us and they have more experience. We should just pretend to be baselines and hand over our cash and watches. We can replace them and we won't get kicked off the train for starting a superpowered fight or worse. That's what I'm planning and I hope you all agree."

Bobby agreed right off while looking at Rhonda, she argued a bit but agreed that Maria was in shape to run and then they all looked to Maria. She said, "I'm willing to pretend but I want us all in one room when he gets here. I worry about you guys just like you worry about me. So go and dress and grab your stuff and be back before he gets here okay?"

"Sounds fair to me," Rick said and Bobby agreed. As they rushed off to get dressed and grab their cash Bobby asked, "Do you think she'll still be topless when the supervillain comes by?"

"I dunno man. I'm trying not to think of it. I just hope we get to Whateley in one piece. Getting to school shouldn't be this hard!" Soon they were dressed and had all their spare cash in their pockets, returning to the girl's room Rick gestured for Bobby to knock.

He knocked once, "We're coming in." Then he opened the door and headed on in. Rick followed relieved the girls were dressed.

Rick said, "Now we just wait," but they didn't have to wait long.

Shortly a man wearing a bodysuit festooned with gear and carrying a weird gun in one hand and a bag in another appeared in the doorway. The body was mostly white with black symbols resembling the card suit of spades all over it. In an electronically filtered voice he said, "Put your hands up. IF you cooperate you will not be harmed. This gun fires sleep rays not bullets, you will wake up in four hours poorer but unharmed unless you give me trouble."

Rick lifted his hands over his head and the others followed suit. The man shot Maria first, the beam was a pale yellow and caught her directly in the chest. Nothing happened and he shot her again. Rick frowned and leaped towards him and the man dove back out of the room. "Ten here," the man voice sounded as he ran back towards the front of the train firing wildly behind him, "ran into mutant opposition."

Bobby slammed the man's head into the wall stopping him from giving any further specifics but the damage had been done. Maria limped up leaning on Rhonda's shoulder, "What do we do now?"

"Necessary change of plan. Bobby and I will try to pick them off one by one while you two guard sleeping beauty here." Rick looked Maria in the eye, "You can't sneak on that ankle," he looked at Rhonda, "And you can spot someone approaching even through a wall. So you two hold the fort here unless you'd rather go back to the room."

"No, I'd rather be out in the open, better chance of spotting people coming and maybe we can at least make these people comfortable," she gestured at the sleeping forms sprawled around the dining car.

"Alright," Rick looked up at Bobby, "you okay with this?"

"Yeah, I agree it's the best thing to do," he put his hand on Rick's shoulder. "If we're going we need to go now."

Rick nodded, "They'll be expecting us so let's try to do the unexpected." He opened a window and stuck his head out looking both ways, "We can climb up out here and maybe catch them by surprise."

"Good enough," Bobby nodded and soon they were creeping along the ground towards the head of the train.