Chapter Eleven
The Salesmen arrive
The alarms sounded at dawn, waking everyone at the school. Five minutes after the first horn, everyone was gathered in the main building, the children safely hidden in the danger room. No one asked what was wrong, they'd seen it through the windows. The Salesmen were here.
A makeup saleswoman was standing in the front, her smile and bag equally creepy, next to her stood a man selling timeshares, on the other side was what appeared to be the dreaded vacuum salesman. They were the worst kind of all. Logan was the current owner of twenty-seven vacuums…and every room in the school was hard floors. After he'd bought his fifth vacuum a flooring salesman had convinced him carpeting in a school was foolish. After the tenth, a different flooring salesman convinced him that area rugs were equally foolish. Not one of the twenty-seven vacuums had a 'hard surface' setting either.
Timeshares were nearly as dangerous, Logan was the part-owner of six vacation spots already, including a cabin in Northern Alberta, despite the fact that he already owned a vacation home fully just five miles away from his timeshare. Storm was particularly worried about Mr. Timeshare until he shifted, and she saw the cleaning supplier.
This was worse than any of them could imagine! If just one of these salespeople got through the gate, Logan was sure to empty his bank account (again). They set to work immediately. Piotr generally handled the hose, but with him gone it was up to Kitty and Wanda. Meanwhile, Ororo led Logan downstairs to watch after the children, and Paige handed out the water balloons to the staff and eldest students as Jonothon filled them.
They watched each other from either side of the gate. The X-men standing stoically with their water wielding supplies and long sticks (used to push salesmen further back if they came to close) on one side, and the Salesmen, now milling about and chattering to each other as well as yelling offers through the bars, on the other. This kind of standoff could last all day…or days. As more arrived, Paige made the painful suggestion of calling the other four back from their mission. Not wanting to expose Logan needlessly to the salesmen, they decided to wait a bit longer.
~o~O~o~
John and Wade had managed to shake Bobby and Piotr at a gas station, by claiming that they needed to use the restroom. Bobby had agreed, and followed them inside to buy everyone a drink and pay for the gas. While he was waiting in line, the other two slipped back outside and into the car as Piotr put the gas cap back. When he turned to see if the others were coming yet, John started the car and drove away while yelling. "Sorry mate! We'll find the boys, just catch a cab home!"
"Come back! You are not to be going without us!" Piotr said as Bobby rushed outside.
"Darn it! I knew they couldn't be trusted." Bobby said as he stomped his foot. "Hold on, I'll call for a pick up."
"Do you think they will cause trouble?"
"They'll be arrested by the state line. Those two could find trouble in a padded room." Bobby listened for a moment before hanging up. "There's something wrong, the school's on lock down."
They sat down on the curb to think of their next move. Piotr had hopefully suggested that perhaps if they called Wade and John and told them there was trouble at the school the men would return. Bobby didn't think that would work but tried anyway. The phone picked up on the first ring.
"Look,we ain't comin back for you. You're anti-tacos, and we just can't travel with that kind of negativity. I'm sorry you'll just have to go back without us." Wade said over the line.
"The school's on lock down, we can't get through. Something's wrong we all need to go back and help."
"Nice try but if something was wrong my 'alert alarm' would be going off. You're just jealous we're eating tacos and you're not. You had your chance. Don't worry we'll find the boys and bring them home."
"Do you even have your alarm on you Wade? I thought you left it with Wanda just in case." Bobby said, trying to get Wade to see reason. Which is like trying to convince a polar bear that it would really like to have a nice salad instead of that harbor seal.
Wade hung up on him so Bobby had no choice but to call for a cab and hope that he had enough in his emergency account to cover it. Wade and John would just have to deal with whatever they got themselves into on their own…and so would the boys.
~o~O~o~
Julian and Jamie had driven all night, but they were finally in the last place Julian could think of to look for Gambit and Rogue. New Orleans. It was now more than ever important to find them and ask for their help, so he decided to take a shot at Jamie's suggestion. He still didn't really understand why they would be here, after all Gambit hated his family. Julian remembered that much, but Jamie kept insisting it was the place to look.
Julian was trying to figure out a good place to stop and ask if anyone had seen the couple without alerting the salesmen to their location while Jamie continued to text. This was getting to the point of ridiculousness! Jamie never put the darn thing down. Didn't he know how rude he was being? Plus, Julian was convinced that the phone was how the salesmen found them the last three times, never mind Jamie's theory that it was his own tendency to scream out of the car window at vendors. In fact, there was another one right in front of him.
Julian rolled down the window and screamed. "Hey you! I know what you're up to and we're going to stop you! I'm not afraid of your crazy cult!" As had happened in every other city by the next block, they were heavily surrounded by salesmen and Jamie was screaming at him about his impulse control.
"I think it's time I send the message, Julian. We need help." Jamie said as they hid in a parking garage near a mall.
"No! I will not admit that Logan has ever been even slightly right about anything! ...Okay, he may be correct that 74 times 1 is not 47, but other than that he has never been right!"
"…I can't believe you're a teacher. Look I won't send it to the X-Men, okay? I'll send it to someone else who can help us."
"Who else is crazy enough to believe us and come help Jamie? I mean if I hadn't been there I wouldn't believe it."
"Normally, I would agree with you but you just reminded me that you are a self-proclaimed mathiest." Jamie said while pulling back out his phone and typing rapidly.
"I'm sick of that stupid phone! All the darn time you're typing on that stupid thing even now when we are about to die! Just drop it!"
"I sent it. To Sinister." Jamie said as Julian pulled the phone from his hand and tossed it out of the car.
"Who?"
"The crazy vampire who is Gambit's sort-of dad." Jamie said as he opened his car door to retrieve his phone. "He'll help if only because he'll believe that Gambit's in trouble. Which reminds me, now I have to warn Gambit that Sinister is likely to show up at his house."
"How? We don't even know where to find Gambit." Julian yelled as Jamie wiped muck off the face of his phone.
"I've told you- "Jamie was cut off by the arrival of the first salesman. He barely closed his car door when Julian hit the gas tearing out of the garage.
