Disclaimer: I had this little slip of paper that said I owned full rights to x-men, but then I wrote my shopping list on the back and handed over to the boyfriend. So, until I get it back, I own nothing. Sad, isn't it?
Summery: Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all the wonderful reviews! I spent ten minutes feeling so warm and fuzzy before hastening to write another installment, just for you! Hope everyone likes it as well as the first one. Sorry it took so long to post, but I'm just starting school again, and zoology must take precedence sometimes. More Jubilee, as requested, but no Jubby, sorry. I know I promised a bear, but he was being so picky about his contract I had to put him off until next chapter. No x-men were harmed in the writing of this fic, but I'm afraid we had several skeeter casulties...
Camping With the x-men - Chapter Two
"I, like, have every rock in, like, the entire state in my shoe!"
Kitty was taking a break to empty pebbles from her sneaker, only to have Jubilee plop down beside her with a sigh. They sat on the log watching the long line pass by, their packs propped against the log. Jubilee absently popped some bubble gum, her eyes vacant. The blue orbs became suddenly sharpened as she slapped at a stinging bite on her bare arm. Scratching the area, she looked around. "Kitty, you have anything bite you?"
Kitty, checking her reflection in a compact she had luckily stowed in her pocket, seeing as how Logan hadn't seen fit to pack any of the bare necessities of life (not even lip gloss!) shook her head before slapping herself on the cheek. Jubes snorted. "Kit-Kat, it won't make everything go away, like waking up from a nightmare or something. Believe me, I've been pinching myself for the last hour in hopes it will." Kitty frowned looking over. "No, I just felt, like, OW!" This time the stinging pain was on her neck.
Scott stopped to watch the show as Jubilee screamed in frustration, swatting at the cloud of mosquitoes suddenly surrounding her. Kitty was trying to swing her pack back on, and failing miserably. The little firecracker settled for a passable imitation of an Indian war dance and whooped as she frantically tried to get to Kitty. Grabbing hold of her friend's arm, she yelped, "Kitty, phase!"
Kitty, shocked into obeying, was instantly intangible, with Jubilee following suit. The mosquitoes buzzed angrily around and through the girls for a few seconds before latching onto their new prey. Both swarms changed their heading for the last person in line.
Scott yelped and waved his arms furiously, his finger straying dangerously close to his visor release. Stumbling foreword, he hit Jamie between the shoulder blades. Instantly twenty more multiples were dancing in place and swatting at the sudden inrush of biting insects.
"What is with these herds of mosquitoes!"
Jean had lost her famous self-control and was spinning in circles, snorting the annoying bugs from her nose. Bobby was trying to freeze every fly or mosquito before it could reach him, resulting a hail-like accumulation of bug balls on the ground. Remy was digging through his pack and wailing in French about not having brought his trench coat, and trying to charge as many insects as possible in the opposite of Bobby's plan. Of the now maddened group, only Kurt, Wolverine, and Rogue seemed unaffected. The insects were unable to penetrate the thick blue fur of Kurt and seemed to avoid Logan like he'd been dipped in DDT. Rogue was shedding as much clothing as possible, leaving her in zip-off shorts and a sports bra that would have fried the brains of the boys around her were they not busy trying not to be eaten alive. Kurt, free of that problem, was attempting to convince himself that hissister, emphasis on the familial relationship,was not attractive, nien, not at all. The trail of dead mosquitoes behind her infuriated the other team members.
"That's, like, so not fair!"
Kitty, still phased but losing energy fast, watched Rogue absently brush another dead black speck negligently off her arm. Happier than she had been since she had seen the pack intended for her, Rogue shrugged, killing another dozen insects trying to land on her poisonous skin. Jubilee, diligently hanging onto her friend's hand, squeaked as she flickered into solid form once, twice, and then remained solid. "Kitty, don't you dare! YAAAAAHH!" Kitty had shaken Jubilee's hand off of her, leaving the yellow-clad girl to deal with the insects on her own. Logan stopped, looking back at the crowd of dancing, swearing, spinning, and blasting mutants before sighing.
"Everyone has repellan' in the left outside pocket of their pack!"
The teacher's bellow caused a simultaneous scramble for the little orange bottles as each student starting furiously spraying and rubbing the contents over themselves. After a minute or two the swarms thinned, then disappeared entirely. Sighs and the sound of scratching were all that could be heard as the junior x-men, for the first time that day, blessed their teacher for his foresight. Rogue had regained her depression, and was pulling the scattered remnants of her wardrobe on before the popping eyes of her now undistracted classmates.
"Packs on! Scotty, beam up any stragglers for dish duty tonight!"
Logan started trudging up the trail as his words sunk in to the incredulous group. Scott, his face swollen from bites, was obviously not in the mood for anything, actually growling at a startled Rahne, who shifted in shock and slunk over to her pack with her tail between her legs. The line formed again and continued up the trail, each student rubbing at their welts.
"We're stoppin' here. Packs off."
The last order was unneeded, as the gathered mutants gratefully unshouldered their heavy bags. Remy, his mind still full of the previously unseen but rumored assets of Rogue, tried to help her but was angrily rebuffed. Bobby watched Logan walking around scuffing in the open clearing, and imitated him by kicking a pinecone. Rahne, changed into her lupine form, yelped happily and dashed after it into the bushes. Jubilee, ever the confident one, marched up to their teacher with purpose.
"Mr. Logan...?"
Wolverine turned back from his survey of the little stream that ran by the camp and endeavored not to growl at the yellow-clad student. "Wha'?"
"Um, where are we going to...?" Jubilee paused delicately.
"We're campin' here, we don' eat for another few hours, an' don' drink any water until I've explained filtration." Logan answered every question he could think of that a young mutant would ask before turn away. A small tug on his shirt brought him back around, growling.
"But Mr. Logan..." Jubilee was starting to get desperate. Luckily for her, Scott stepped in.
"Alright, girls' bush on this side and boys' bush on that side." Jubilee threw him a thankful look and disappeared into her respective bush along with Kitty, Rogue, and Tabby.
"Where'd Rahne go?" His face still covered in penny size welts, Scott looked around at knee height for the familiar brown shape before a yelp, howl, and scream brought everyone still in the clearing to their feet. Rahne came skittering out of the bushes in partial human form with what appeared to be long knitting needles protruding from her right arm/hand/paw. Shifting back to her wolf shape, she scrabbled around on the ground chewing at the long thin black and white spikes.
"JEAN!"
Logan's bellow sent the students flying for their packs in automatic response before his actual words sank in.
"JEAN! GET THE FORCEPS AND SOME IODINE!"
Logan dived for the struggling Rahne and pinned her to ground, yelling for Scott to help. Jean, digging through her pack, came up with a pair of forceps and a brown bottle before descending on the wriggling, yelping, and swearing mass. "Rahne, hold still, we have to dig them out." Logan's voice was strained as he tried to control the wolf girl without crushing her under his adamantium weight.
"Hold her still, how am I supposed to pull them out.."
Logan resorted to grabbing Rahne's leg, getting bitten for his trouble, but held on tenaciously as the girl started to squeal again. Jean locked the silver instrument in her hand on one of the two needle-like objects imbedded in the mutants arm and pulled. Bobby, standing a few feet away, blanched and went to empty his still weak stomach into the bushes - on the girls' side.
Added to the now hoarse yells and yelps from the still struggling tangle of Rahne, Logan, Scott, and Jean were high pitched screams and the sound of slaps.
"Bobby Drake, you pervert!"
Bobby stumbled out of the bushes, only to have Kurt lunge at him. The blue elf, who had just emerged from the boys' side with Remy at the noise, assumed the worst. He tackled Bobby to the ground, wrapping his nimble tail around the larger boy's throat and tightening. The yellow eyes stared down into his as the younger teenager found himself dangling from Kurt's tail and one three fingered hand around his wrist on a branch twenty feet above the ground where Nightcrawler had teleported them.
"You, you dare to vatch my sister and Katzchen!"
Bobby, feeling like his head was likely to pop off at any moment, not to mention a dislocated shoulder that seemed to loom in the future, looked down. His situation suddenly seemed much better above the ground, where the screeching and frazzled girls below the tree couldn't reach him. Well, couldn't reach him until Jubilee realized that she was, after all, a mutant for a reason.
"Yowch!"
Bobby squeaked through the tail on his neck as a burst of plasma singed his hair. Kurt, blinded by the flash, teleported to safety, leaving Bobby stranded on the branch. Clinging to the thin trunk of the tree, Bobby moaned as another firework exploded close to his ear.
"Got it!"
Jean triumphantly pulled the second needle out to join the first, then liberally swabbed iodine on the puncture wounds, accidentally marking Logan and Scott often as Rahne continued to struggle against her captors. "Okay, I'm done!" The two men jumped up, though not fast enough for Logan to avoid a bite on the ankle as Rahne, now in human form, locked her teeth into his pants leg. Scott, looking around at the commotion he had previously not heard having his ear right next to Wolfsbane's snarling mouth, pulled at Logan's shirt in shock. Logan in turn dashed a drop of iodine away from his eye and looked up.
Bobby was hugging the tree for dear life as Kitty and Rogue screamed, Jubilee threw fireworks, and the rest of the group watched in macabre shock.
"THA'S ENOUGH!"
The clearing fell eerily silent as Logan stalked over to the tree. Looking up at Bobby, he growled, "Ge' down." The small blond obligingly slid down on an ice slide, landing behind Wolverine and peeking out around his shoulder. The short teacher looked as though someone had painted his face, with rusty orange streaks across his nose, chin and forehead matched by those on Scott's ear and mouth. Rahne was crying on the ground while Jean held her, the girl apologizing to the doctor for not holding still. Jean was trying to convince the upset mutant to take something for the pain. Jamie, finally down to just one multiple besides himself since the mosquito incident, went over to help comfort his friend.
Logan stood in front of the group of students, breathing harder than normal from the exertions of holding Rahne down. Female members of the population eyed his chest with interest under the muscle tank, trying to pretend they were paying attention.
"All right. We've had a bad start. Everyone needs to calm... down." He sent a very obvious glare at the still furious Rogue, Jubilee, and Kitty. "Icecube didn't mean to go into your bushes." Jean had shot him that bit of information after a swift probe through the petrified boy's mind. "Now, everyone pay attention. Rahne brought up a very important point." Rahne glared at him. "There 'r dangerous animals out here that we nee' t' stay 'way from. Porcupines are the leas' of our worries. We will be hangin' food tonigh' so tha' bears won' be attracted t' the camp, but I have to tell you to make sure that you don' invite animals in by leavin' food out." Nods answered his speech. Grunting and nodding emphatically back to prove his point, Logan turned his back on the group.
"Now, everyone get their stuff out. Every other pack will have a blue tarp wrapped 'round their sleeping bag." Still glaring at each other, the various mutants started to rifle through their packs. As promised, approximately half the students had a large blue and silver tarp rolled with their assorted sleeping bags. Logan waited impatiently until the last student had re-snapped their pack shut before continuing his instructions.
"You guys 'r gonna be sharin' these tarps. Storm promised us no rain, so I skipped the tents. Damn claustrophobic things anyway. The pairs 'r," Logan consulted a small list he pulled from an inside pocket of his pack, "Wolfsbane 'n Shadowcat, Jubilee 'n Boom-Boom, Scott 'n Jean," Logan glared at nothing in particular at that, "Icecube and Gambit - keep your thieving hands t' yourself Gumbo, or Cube has permission to freeze 'em off - Nightcrawler with Multiple, an' Quicksilver bunks wit' Avalanche. Rogue an' I 'r sleepin' separate, for obvious reasons." Rogue looked moderately pleased, then swiftly exchanged the expression for her commonly used sneer when Bobby glanced her way.
"Mr. Logan, like, how do we set them up?"
"Easy kid. Jus' lay out the tarp, set out the bags, and roll both bags up. Helps if'n the silver sides in, keeps y' warmer. 'Kay, so next order of business. Water. You got to filter 'r boil all your water 'fore drinking it. We'll be fillin' bottles in the mornin', so..." At this point most of the students had stopped listening, instead, looking inquisitively around themselves instead or staring vapidly at Logan. Jean, watching the group and Scott at the same time, pushed her husbands hand away from scratching his face yet again and sighed. It looked to be a long weekend.
Sorry it took me so long, you wonderfully patient reviewers!
Morgaine of the Faeries: Thank you so much for the wonderful review! I love to hear how much people like my stories, and the fact that you rarely review makes it even more special. As for Romy, I figured on making Rogue having this act that Remy breaks through – tho the muses haven't let on for sure yet!
Flare: Yes, well, you know Logan – big softie with claws
theauthorwearspradaAgain, so sorry, but I don't do Jubby – any attempts always end up with pyrotechnic battles
Evil Lady X, J.l., Dark Raven: Thanks for the reviews, I'm just all happy inside!
Elizabeth Robbins: Thank you for the heads up, I'm not fully initiated into the difference between all the categories yet