And we're out of the states and off to the rest of the world. Not gonna lie, of all the people joining in this arc Sunfire's the one I know the least about, hell, the only time I've ever read a comic with him in it was during the Uncanny Avengers run. I'll do my research on him as I write this chapter but please bear with me, he might be out of character.
That's enough from me, on to the next chapter.
Land of the Rising Sunfire
"So, Japan," Bobby began. The two of us shared a look before giant grins broke over our faces. "HELL YEAH JAPAN!" Bobby and I shout.
Logan groans as he lowers his cowboy hat over his face and sinks deeper into his seat. "It's just another country, ain't no reason to be so damn excited."
"Oh, Logan, you don't understand how important this is for Nolan and me! Japan is a land filled with a wealth of culture. Tis time for us to experience the wonders of anime, firsthand." Bobby explained.
Everyone just stares at the two of us, Bobby standing, one leg on his chair with his hands on his waist, I'm currently bouncing around in my seat. They all just turn back to doing what they were doing before. "They don't understand, trust me, I've tried explaining to Jean and Scott." I tell Bobby.
Bobby turns to the two and gives them an intense glare. They just shrug in response. "I mean, some of what Nolan's shown me are pretty interesting." Scott says.
"Does Pokemon count?" Jean asks.
Logan groans loudly in annoyance just before I sigh deeply. "W-W-What!? NO! THAT IS NOT AN ANIME! (Well, technically it is) BUT NO!" Bobby begins to rant.
"Dude just let it go, please. Let's just enjoy our time towards and at Japan, yeah?" I say.
Bobby deflates. "Fine. Wait, you've watched some of what Nolan recommended? What the hell man!? I've known you for four years now and you haven't once watched any of my recommendations!" Bobby straightens up and marches towards Scott.
The Blackbird jerks to the left, all of us in our seats grab a hold of our armrests while Bobby losses his footing and flies into Remy. "Hey dere, think you can cool my drink?" Remy offers his soda to Bobby. Bobby touches the can. "Appreciate it."
"No problem." Bobby grumbles. He slowly gets up and marches towards his seat, he then drops into it and folds his arms, sinking into his seat.
Kitty sticks her head over my shoulder. "He's pretty intense about this, isn't he?"
"Yup. You should've seen it, he pretty much bullied Armando (One of the kids at the school) into watching anime," I explain, she looks at me with wide eyes. "To be fair, he's enjoying it, starting another series that I can't remember right now."
"You got any recommendations?" She asks.
A large smile comes over my face. "Oh, Kitty, I am going to show you a whole new world."
"Get a room, you two!" Jubilee calls out.
Kitty snaps back into her seat and looks to her left, glaring at a smirking Jubilee who sits next to her, I look between mine and Bobby's seats and glare at her as well. "I'm just saying. You two are so hot for each other, pretty sure Bobby can barely cool things down." She continues.
"She ain't wrong, you two are almost less subtle than Jean and Scott, bravo for that." Bobby adds. I punch him in the shoulder, Kitty's hand comes from between our headrests, she smacks him in the side of the head.
"If ya like Japan so much why don't you take her on a date? We don't need everyone to get Yoshida." Logan says.
"Dammit Logan, not you too." I whine, sinking into my seat hoping it'll absorb me.
"S-Scott?" Kitty asks, a slight stutter in her voice. "How long until we reach Japan?"
"We'll get there by tomorrow. Ample time for the two of you to plan your little sightseeing date if you want." Scott says. He looks back and has a cheeky grin on his face.
"Okay, anyone else?" I say. Looking around I see everyone has cheeky grins on their faces. Hell, even Logan has one if you look carefully enough. "Great, now then, time to change the subject. Please."
"What about, bro?" Bobby asks.
"What about the rest of de team? Like de guy wit' wings or…Beast, was it?" Remy says.
"Yeah, we can talk about that," Scott begins. "Jean, Bobby, and I are three of the original five. Warren and Hank are the other two, Warren goes by Angel. Logan, Ororo, Forge, and John joined the team in what we call the Second Wave."
"Storm and Thunderbird are Ororo and John's codenames, right?" Rogue asks.
"Yeah. Nolan's still technically the newest member of the team." Jean replies.
"I go by Mimic. I've been on the team for about a year now, in November, to be exact." I explain.
"We aren't X-Men?" Jubilee says as she stands over Bobby's seat.
"It's gotta be official. Besides, you don't have to join if you don't want to, you can become a student entirely if you want to and join the team later, John-Thunderbird's brother-is doing that right now." Bobby says.
"I'm gonna join as soon as I can!" Jubilee exclaims.
"Same. Chere?" Remy turns to Rogue.
She nods. "Ah'm down. Kitty?"
"Someone's gotta make sure Nolan doesn't make any stupid decisions again, he's got enough scars." Kitty says. Jean barks out a quick laugh at that, I hate that she knows about that, and that Kitty remembers.
"Kitty, how the hell do you even remember that? We were like four when that happened." I say.
"Eidetic memory." She replies.
I blink. The phrase is familiar but where did I hear it from? Oh, right, she told me that after she learned she had one, talked about it for a whole week. Wait, if I remember something from that long ago does that mean I have eidetic memory? That's fucking awesome.
"What's that?" Jubilee asks.
"The ability to remember anything after seeing it only once," Jean answers for Kitty. "I'm impressed Kitty, not a lot of people have that skill."
"Thanks Jean. Do you have it? And the Professor also?" She asks.
Jean nods. "Yeah, all telepaths have eidetic memory. Made all the tests I've taken in the past super easy, also helps that we're born with it."
"Really?" I ask.
"Yeah, it tends to be the first ability telepathic mutants have. Hell, if you're more likely to have an X-gene and have eidetic memory, chances are you're more likely to be a telepath. Kitty's obviously the exception." Jean explains.
"Niiice." I say. Kitty and I fist bump.
"Wait, so what about Nolan? He can be a telepath when he wants to, what does that do to his memory?" Rogue asks.
"The Professor and I have a theory about that, and Kitty helped solve it just now actually." Jean says.
"How'd I help?" Kitty wonders.
"When Nolan had met you the shared memories the two of you have together came rushing back to him. Thanks to his telepathy he now has an eidetic memory, but he needs a trigger that relates to the memory for it to come back." Jean explains.
"That would make sense," I add. "When I heard Kitty's name there was a nagging sensation in the back of my head, once Kitty and I started to talk my memories did slowly start to come back."
Jean turns her seat around, looking out the window. She puts her hands behind her head as her seat leans back. "Theory solved. Nice one team, next we'll solve the mystery of where Logan gets all of his cigars."
Logan grunts. "Good luck, Red."
"What time is it?" Bobby pipes up. "Oh, it's nearly midnight. How many hours left, Slim?"
Scott looks at the console. "Another six, Bobby."
I yawn as my seat leans back, Bobby and Jubilee doing the same. "Wake us when you need us." Jubilee says. Bobby and I bring our fists out to her, we have a triple fist bump.
After about half an hour I finally fall asleep. Goodbye North America, hello Japan.
I feel cards hit against my face. Groaning I open my eyes to find a smirking Rogue and Remy, the latter throwing the cards at me. "Get up, we're a couple minutes out from Japan." Rogue says.
I get up and stretch, noticing that Jubilee, Kitty, Bobby, and Jean are still asleep. I turn to my right and kick Bobby's leg; he jumps up and looks around frantically before glaring at me. Jean lets out a yawn as she wakes up, Jubilee can be heard grumbling something like 'five more minutes', and Kitty's rubbing her eyes as she gets up.
"How much longer?" Kitty asks.
"Another ten minutes. Some of the Professor's old friends will meet us at the airport and offer us a place to stay. Helps that Shiro's one of them." Scott answers.
"Really? Awesome. Hey, maybe we can get the recruitment done right at the airport?" Bobby says.
We all look at him for a minute, he squirms uncomfortably due to the intensity of our combined gazes. "Bobby, we had to fight Remy and Rogue when they were being manipulated in Louisiana. Nolan had to deal with a localized earthquake back in Illinois, and we had Sentinels in Cali. Knowing our luck there'll be a fight or two to be had." Jean deadpans.
Bobby deflates. "Can't you let a guy dream?"
"No." We all say.
"Assholes." Bobby mutters.
"Sit down, I'm gonna begin landing." Scott says.
A few minutes later we walk down the ramp, at the end we find three people waiting for us, a bald old guy who's pretty short, he's just a little shorter than me, actually. An attractive woman to his left, she's even shorter than he is, and she looks to be in her early to mid-twenties. And to his right is a giant of a man, extremely muscular with a katana on his waist.
"Ah, you must be Xavier's students! Welcome to Japan, my name is Shingen Harada. This is my son, Keniuchio Harada, and my lovely daughter, Mariko Yashida." The bald man begins.
"Nice to meet you, Harada, sir. My name is Scott Summers, these are Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Logan, Nolan Belmont, Remy LeBeau, Anna Marie-you can call her Rogue-Kitty Pryde, and Jubilation Lee, she goes by Jubilee." Scott bows in respect, most of us follow suit.
"Why don't you bow?" Keniuchio says. He marches forward and towers over Logan.
"I've got my reasons, bub," He turns to Shingen. "Where's Shiro? We thought he'd be here with you."
"Yes, that. Please, come with us to our home, I will explain everything there." Shingen says. From his car comes four bodyguards, they all come towards us and take our luggage to the car. Scott turns to look at us, after a silent conversation, which had no telepathy involved, we all shrugged and followed Shingen and his family.
"Can I hold your katana?" Jubilee suddenly asks Keniuchio.
Everyone stops and stares at her in shock. Shortly after Shingen barks out a laugh as his daughter hides her own laugh behind her hand. Keniuchio just stares at Jubilee, a look of surprise flashes over his face once he realizes that Jubilee was serious, and that his blank look won't do anything to deter her.
"No. But I will let you use one of my katanas at home, this one is…special." He says.
Jubilee grabs Remy by the shoulders and violently shakes him. Looking to my left I see Logan brooding in his seat, a deeper frown than usual on his face. "You good man?" I ask.
Logan leans towards me. "I don't know why, but I've got a bad feelin' about Shingen and his son, somethin' about them rubs me the wrong way." He whispers.
"And Mariko?" I continue.
Logan stays quiet for a moment. "There's somethin' about her that I can't quite place. I feel like she reminds me of someone, but I don't know who. Keep this between me and you, got it Shifty?"
"Count on it." I say.
Logan nods as he leans back into his seat, but by doing so he attracts the attention of Shingen. "Logan, is it? You don't talk much do you, why is that?"
"Just don't feel like it." Logan says.
Keniuchio-who I'm now going to call Ken-leans forward and growls, placing his hand on the hilt of his katana. "Disrespect my father anymore and you will find your head separate from your body."
"Try me." Logan counters, the skin between his knuckles bulging slightly.
"Please, don't fight." Mariko says.
Due to the softness of her voice and the fact that this is the first time she's spoken we all look at her and calm down, the tension dropping to acceptable levels.
The car stops. We exit the vehicle and find ourselves in front of a large property, a mansion showing the perfect fusion of traditional Japanese architecture mixed with modern technology. Shingen, his children, and his guards walk to the front of the mansion and turn around, Shingen spreads his arms out and has a large smile on his face. "Welcome to the Yashida Mansion!"
Bobby makes a sound of appreciation as he looks around. "Yup, this is dope."
"Remy seconds that." Remy adds.
Shingen chuckles as most of us look around in awe at his home. "I made sure to keep the traditional Japanese architecture and feel, while also making the home modern. It helps that my company is cutting edge in technology."
"Right, the Yashida Zaibatsu is yours, isn't it? Wonder why I didn't make the connection sooner." I muse. I look to my left and see a koi fish pond.
"It is. And soon it will go to my daughter, Mariko." Shingen says.
I notice Ken's face shift at that. Logan, Scott, Remy, and I all look at each other subtly, looks like they noticed his disagreement with that as well. A maid exits from the front door. "Harada-Sama, the food is prepared in the dining room."
"Thank you, you are dismissed," Shingen replies. The maid bows before walking back inside. "Come, you must be hungry from all of your travelling, yes?"
Bobby's stomach decides to growl at that exact moment. "Heh, yeah. Eating only snacks and fast-food doesn't really help the stomach."
My stomach growls as well. "What're we eating?" Jean smacks the back of my head. "I mean, what are we eating, sir?"
"Come, inside, I find it better to see the food than to describe it." Shingen and his entourage turn around to enter the house, we follow them.
Logan grabs Scott and I by our shoulders and holds us back. "Slim, the kid and I talked about this earlier, but you gotta know too: I got a bad feelin' about Shingen, and his son, Keniuchio, soemthin' about them rubs me the wrong way."
Scott nods. "Jean and Bobby have the same feeling as well; I think Remy does too. Let's play along, after all, they're our only lead to Shiro as of now."
Logan pats our shoulders before moving forward to join the group, Scott and I follow behind. In the dining room we find a long table stretching from one end of the room to the other, on the table we see an assortment of food, ranging from sushi, to yakitori, to rice, tea and sake are also on the table.
"Please, make yourselves at home." Shingen announces.
The table has chairs, so we all sit in them. At the head sits Shingen, with Mariko to his right and Ken to his left. Logan, Bobby, Rogue, and Jubilee sitting next to Ken, with the rest of us on the other side, next to Mariko. A group of butlers enter the dining room, one for each of us, they ask us for what we would like, and eventually, we all have our own plates of a select choice of foods. Remy's, Bobby's, and Jubilee's plates have a little bit of everything on them.
As we begin to eat Jean turns to Shingen. "So, you wanted to talk about Shiro when we were at your home, is now a good time?"
Shingen wipes his mouth and places his fists on the table, quiet for a moment before looking Jean in the eyes. "My brother, Tomo Yoshida, has taken Shiro, where, we do not know. But we believe that he plans to use Shiro to attack targets in the United States."
"Woah. Any idea why he would do this to his own son?" Jubilee asks.
"Oh, no, Uncle Tomo isn't Shiro's father, Saburo is." Mariko corrects.
"Got it, so, why would he use his own nephew as a weapon?" Jubilee asks.
Shingen sighs. "Our mother was in Hiroshima during the bombing, she survived for years, but in the end the radiation poisoning got to her. Many believed that my brothers and I wouldn't live past our adolescence, yet, here we are."
"The radiation didn't do anything to you?" Kitty asks.
For a split second I notice Shingen's face twitch, so does Ken's fist and Mariko's mouth. They're definitely hiding something, Scott, Logan, Remy, and I share a subtle look. "My brother, Saburo's two children are mutants, well, we believe his daughter will become one."
"Believe?" Rogue questions.
"When Shiro was younger he showed a resistance to heat, his sister shows similar traits, even though they have different mothers." Shingen explains.
"What happened to Shiro's mother?" I ask.
"When she was visiting the United States, she was killed by Americans. We believe Tomo is using this to manipulate Shiro to help him." Ken answers.
"And because Shiro and his sister have similar powers but different mothers it's more than likely that the X-gene comes from your uncle then." Jean summarizes. Ken nods.
"Now we've gotta solve the mystery of where Tomo took Shiro, stop them, and convince Shiro that this is the wrong path to take. Sounds like fun." Jubilee says.
"Yes, well, there's another problem that we've recently learned about." Shingen says sheepishly.
"What?" Logan growls.
"We believe Tomo has hired an assassin to teach my nephew how to effectively kill." Shingen answers.
We all look at each other with wide eyes. This doesn't sound good. "Who's the assassin?" Rogue asks.
"A woman by the name of Yuriko Oyama." Shingen answers.
Logan chokes on his sake and crushes the cup, he rises up in his chair and moves so fast he practically teleports towards Shingen, he lifts him up by his shirt. The guards in the room quickly move towards Logan and place their swords all over his body, Ken gets up and puts the blade against Logan's neck.
"Say that one more time, I could've sworn you said 'Yuriko Oyama'." Logan lowly says.
"I did." Shingen simply says.
Logan drops Shingen into his seat, the guards and Ken slowly back away. Logan heads towards his seat, picks up his hat-which fell off during his lunge towards Shingen-and exits the dining room. Things stay quiet as we all look at the door, Ken glares at the door before getting up. "I am going to train. I won't fight him, even if he attacked Father in our own home." He says before his sister could object.
"I'm going with!" We all look at Jubilee as she jumps out of her seat, her plate half-eaten. "You said I'd get to use one of your swords. Time to make good on your promise."
Ken's eyebrows quickly drop, giving him an extremely blank look on his face, well, blanker than usual. He just sighs before walking towards the door, motioning for Jubilee to follow him. She jumps in place before quickly following him.
"That happened," Shingen's phone goes off. "I must take this, Mariko, please be a good host for our guests, after they are done-"
"Show them to the guest rooms. I know, Father." Mariko finishes.
Shingen nods as he leaves, four of the eight guards leaving with him. "Sooo, your brother always dat intense?" Remy breaks the awkward silence, Rogue slaps him in the arm.
Mariko just laughs lightly, using her hand to cover her mouth. "Yes, Keniuchio has. I believe some of it has to do with his birth."
"What do you mean?" Jean asks.
"My brother is illegitimate, because of that I am next in line to take over the company, even though he is older than I am." Mariko explains.
"Why? I mean, bastards haven't been a thing since the medieval times, right? Unless your dad's a big fan of Game of Thrones that makes no sense." I counter.
She looks down, shame in her eyes. "There's more to it that I cannot say, private matters. I hope you understand."
"Of course, Mariko." Scott says.
"Your gruff friend, Logan, is it? Why did he react to that name like that?" Mariko asks, changing the topic.
"Logan's memory is scrambled, he only remembers up to five, almost six years ago. But we didn't meet him until a couple of years ago. It's entirely possible he ran into this Yuriko before he met us." Jean answers.
Mariko nods. "I see," Three chefs come in from a door in the back of the dining room, two carts pushed by them. A cake on one and some ice cream on the other. "Ah, desert! Please, help yourselves."
Bobby lets out a little laugh as he looks at the ice cream. "Don't mind if I do."
I scoot back in my seat and get up; Kitty looks up at me. "Nolan?"
"I'm good, all the food got me full. I'm gonna look for Logan." I explain.
"Can you find him? Our home is rather large?" Mariko asks, some worry clear in her voice.
"Don't worry about me, I can find him." I say. I turn around and exit the dining room. Switching to my Wolverine powers I sniff the air and find two familiar scents, Jubilee of to the west with who I can assume to be Ken, and Logan off to the north, alone. On the way there I hear Shingen's raised voice, intrigued I head down the hallway, but before I get any further, I stop and sniff the air. Yup, all six of his guards are waiting nearby him, two closer to him. Swapping to my Storm powers I create a light, but strong breeze and float upwards, going down the hallway I see four guards outside, two on each side of the door, the other two must be inside.
Swapping to my Thunderbird powers I listen carefully, while finding a good hiding spot. Dammit, I can't understand him, he's speaking Japanese. What to do, what to do. Got it! I swap to my Marvel Girl powers and telepathically download the Japanese language from one of the guards.
Sticking with my current powerset I decide to use the senses of one of the guards inside of the room, while also cloaking my presence to the guards outside. Using the eyes and ears of one of the guards inside I get a part of the conversation.
"-ike I said, the X-Men are here, and the one known as Wolverine reacted violently when Yuriko was mentioned. Ask her if the two of them have a history, Tomo." Shingen roars into the phone.
Interesting. Looks like Tomo and Shingen are in league with each other, but why make it seem like Saburo's the bad guy? Time to listen back in. "No. Don't you dare change the plan. Think for once, Tomo, if we can get Shiro under our control entirely we could easily take over Japan's underworld, with Shiro's power of the sun and Keniuchio's tachyon fields no one will stop us"
Looks like Kenny boy's a mutant too, but what does 'tachyon fields' mean? How do those work as his powers? I mean, don't tachyons usually relate to time travel and shit? "Yes, yes, I understand. Tomo, I must go, I will send the X-Men to you, but do not worry, the Silver Samurai will assist you. Goodbye, brother." Shingen ends the phone call.
Exiting from the head of the guard I walk towards Logan, mulling over what I just learned. So, Shingen's going to 'find out' where his brother and Shiro are, causing a battle between the two sides. Chances are we're gonna fight Shiro and Yuirko, and this Silver Samurai's gonna be there too. Wait a minute, Ken's tie was silver, wasn't it? Oh, Ken, you sly dog you. Talk about subtly revealing your identity.
Shit, Jubilee. My walk towards Logan becomes a jog, once I reach the doors to where he is, I slide it open to find Logan relaxing in a garden, after a moment he opens one of his eyes. "What'd you find out, Shifty?"
I sit across from him in a similar position, I think it's called seiza. I create a telepathic link between the two of us. "Shingen's been playing us. He's in on Tomo's plan, Keniuchio is also, and he's a mutant called the Silver Samurai."
"I've heard of him, apparently his sword can cut through anything, his sword glows silver before it cuts through shit." Logan replies.
"That would explain the tachyon fields Shingen mentioned. Shingen's gonna 'find' Tomo and Shiro and send us to them, a fight's more than likely to break out between us, Tomo's men, Shiro, and Yuriko. Ken's gonna be there too as the Silver Samurai." I continue.
"You know why this is happening?" Logan asks.
"Shingen and Tomo plan to take over the entire Japanese underworld, with Shiro and Ken as their enforcers, chances are Yuriko's gonna be one as well." I finish.
"It's entirely possible Shiro's little sister'll get dragged into this once it's confirmed she's a mutant. Where's the rest of the team?" Logan says.
"Probably in the dining room still, eating dessert. By the way, I'm pretty sure Mariko knows something about this, but I don't think she's an active part of the plan." I tell him.
We feel a third presence in our conversation. "Where are you two?" Jean asks.
"The meditation garden. The kid's got news." Logan says.
"Shingen's playing us. He's working with Tomo to indoctrinate Shiro into helping them take over the Japanese underworld, Yuriko's training Shiro in assassination skills. Keniushio's a mutant called the Silver Samurai; his mutation allows him to cut through anything with tachyon fields." I begin.
"And Shingen's going to somehow figure out where they are and send us to an ambush, where we'll have to fight Shiro, Yuriko, the Silver Samurai, and Tomo's men. Is that right?" Jean asks.
"Yup." Logan and I reply.
"Shingen just returned, we'll continue this conversation on the way there. Nolan, I'll have you tell the others." Jean cuts off the communication.
A guard opens the door and bows deeply. "Logan-san, Nolan-san, Shingen-sama urgently requests your presence back in the dining room."
Logan and I open our eyes and nod before getting up. "Lead the way." I say to the guard.
On the way their we run into Ken and a sweaty, but still energetic, Jubilee. "Hey guys! Guess what? I got to use a katana! And that's not all, Kenny here said I have a natural affinity. I think I'm gonna come back every now and again to take lessons from Kenny. Right, Kenny?"
Logan and I share a look. This isn't going to end well, is it?
Ken sighs as he looks down at Jubilee. "Of course, Jubilation."
Jubilee's demeanor shifts for a second. "How many times do I have to say it? Call me Jubilee."
Ken stares at her as we stop outside of the door to the dining room. "No. Jubilation," A small smirk is seen on his face as he steps into the dining room. "Father, what is it?"
"I believe I have found Shiro," He places a map of Japan on the table, a red circle at the eastern edge of the island country. "Normally I would request you go there as soon as possible but knowing my brother there will be deadly traps in play, and his men will be hidden in every corner. I will send some of my more skilled men, alongside my son, out to scout the area, they should return by tomorrow. Until then I recommend you all rest and make any necessary plans."
Scott steps forward and traces his finger over the map. "That's at least a half a day's travel from here, what if we go with your men now?"
"I would strongly insist against that. I am your host, please allow me the chance to make your stay comfortable while I can. Besides, you all just ate a hefty meal, at least let it sit." Shingen offers.
Scott looks over the team. "Okay, we accept your hospitality. Thank you." He bows, we all follow suit, well, except for Logan, he just nods.
Shingen smiles before leaving the dining room with his son and his guards, leaving Mariko and her guards with us. "Please, let me show you to the guest rooms."
We follow Mariko and her guards towards the guest rooms. Logan, Scott, Jean, and I at the back. "Jean told me everything," Scott whispers. "We'll tell the others later, right now let's just play along."
Yeah, the guest rooms? They weren't guest rooms. It's more like a house for guest to stay at while at the Yashida Mansion. "Damn, Ah've never seen a house this big in mah life." Rogue whispers in awe as she spins around, looking at the paintings on the roof.
"Father made sure the guest room would tend to all of our guests needs, especially when you consider the fact that we have many guests through the year, so we just had a home created for the guests," Mariko begins a tour through the home. "There are a total of twenty rooms, each with their own bathrooms, a kitchen, a gym, two recreational areas, a meditation room, a laundry room, and more."
The tour ends in the massive recreational area, a modern kitchen adjacent to where we are, Remy and Bobby rummage through the fridge. One of the guards places a finger on his comm before whispering something to Mariko. "Sorry, but my father requires my assistance. Have a good night." She bows.
We do the same. "Thanks for showing us around." Logan says, tipping his hat slightly as he does.
A faint blush can be seen on Mariko's face before she leaves. Once the door closes we all look around, Kitty lets out a gasp as she notices something in nearby the massive television, she grabs me by the arm and drags me towards it, phasing the both of us through a couch and the table in the center.
"Nolan! Look. At. This." She excitedly says, grabbing me by the face and forcing me to look at a laptop.
"It's a laptop." I say.
Kitty gasps as if I insulted Odin or something. (Which I did on accident once during one of my training sessions with Thor. I was attacked by ravens for weeks.) "It's not 'a laptop', it's a Yashida KatanaPad 4, second only to Stark Tech laptops."
"Okay. If it's so good just take it, I don't think they'd mind." I say.
"Nolan, they're our hosts, I can't just take shit from them." She says.
"I don't think they'd care if you took one of their laptops. Hell, pretty sure they'd expect you to take one." I argue.
Kitty puts a finger in my face-not literally-and prepares to argue back, but she just opens her mouth and says nothing before putting her finger down and nodding. "Point."
"Y'all noticed somehin' off? Or was dat only Remy?" Remy asked as he put together a sandwich for himself and Rogue, seeing as she's standing next to him and telling him what to put in it.
"Yeah, the fact that this place is an impressive fusion of classic and modern." Scott says confusing Remy greatly. Jean creates a mental link between all of us. "I know what you're talking about Remy, but we can't say it out right, this place is most likely bugged."
"Remy never knew it was possible to do that, guess he was wrong." Remy plays along.
"Huh, Stardust Crusaders rerun," Bobby turns to me. "Hey, Nol, when's it coming back?"
"Uh, January 9th, I think. What else is on?" I sit down next to Bobby.
Jean smacks the both of us on the back of our heads. "C'mon you two, we've got a big day ahead of us. Let's go to sleep. You too, Remy." We all look to see Remy attempt to take a bite out of his massive sandwich, reminded me of Shaggy to be honest.
We all go upstairs and enter our rooms, here I find a large mattress, everyone else's rooms must look the same. I turn off the light, take off my jacket and shoes and lay in bed. "Everyone here?" I telepathically call out.
I get affirmatives from everyone. "Alright, right off the bat: Shingen's been playing us. He has a plan with Tomo to take over the entire Japanese underworld by using Shiro and Ken as enforcers."
"What the hell, man?" Jubilee says.
"Don't blame me, blame Shingen. Anyway, this Yuriko chick's training Shiro, and Ken's a mutant called the Silver Samurai." I continue.
"John, Ororo, and I have seen the aftermath of one of his attacks once. About four months ago, actually." Bobby adds.
"I remember that." Scott says.
"What's next, Nolan?" Rogue asks.
"Well, as we saw, Shingen conveniently found their location, and by sending his men and Ken there we're gonna fight them once we have to go there. Chances are this Yuriko chick's a mutant or has powers at least." I explain.
"Neither, she's a cyborg, goes by Lady Deathstrike." Logan adds.
"Right, how do you know her?" Kitty asks.
"One of the first memories I have is waking up in a place called Madripoor-an absolute shithole-she was one of the first people I ran into. Her cybernetics allow her the ability superhuman capabilities, and her nails can extend up to a foot and cut through nearly anything." Logan tells us.
"That means I can't copy her powers than." I tell the others.
"Why?" Jubilee questions.
"Her powers aren't natural, meaning I can't emulate them." I explain.
"Jubilee, Remy, how good are your acting skills?" Scott asks.
"Pretty good, why?" They both reply at the same time.
"The two of you and Bobby are gonna stay behind, pretend you can't make it due to food poisoning or whatever. You three will stay behind and interrogate Shingen. The rest of us will go along with his plot, Logan, Jean, I want the two of you to take out Keniuchio as fast as possible." Scott begins to plan.
Rogue pipes up. "What about Mariko?"
"She isn't against us outright, yeah she knows her father's plan, but she doesn't have a hand in it. Bobby could trap her in her room with an ice wall." I offer.
"Rogue, I want you to take Shiro out of the equation as soon as possible, chances are Keniuchio and his men will turn on us during the fight. Thankfully they don't know that we know, so we can definitely use this to our advantage. Kitty, Nolan, deal with the guards. Got it everyone?" Scott finishes.
"Got it." We all reply.
"See you tomorrow, X-Men." Scott exits the call, followed by everyone but Kitty.
"You ready, Nol?" She asks.
"I've been ready, Kit," I pause as I take a deep breath. "Are you?"
She's quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready," She becomes quiet again, before I could ask what was wrong, she speaks up again. "See you tomorrow, Nol." She exits the call.
Why was she like that? I'll ask tomorrow, I'm getting pretty damn tired right now. Time to fight a samurai tomorrow.
A knock resonates from my door. Getting up I walk towards the door and open it to see one of the guards standing on the other side. "Sir, Shingen-sama requests your presence in the dining room immediately!"
"Got it." He bows before walking over to the next door, which happened to be Rogue's. After he finishes talking to her the two of us make eye contact before nodding. Three other guards wake up the rest of the team. Well, everyone but Jubilee, Remy, and Bobby. We all follow the guards to the dining room where we find Shingen, Mariko, and their guards waiting.
"Sorry to wake you all so early but Keniuchio has sent an urgent message. Your presence is needed immediately-three of you are missing, why?" Shingen looks at Scott.
Scott scratches his cheek with a finger. "Yeah, the food didn't agree with them last night unfortunately. Don't worry, we can still save your nephew."
Shingen looks at us with a critical eye before nodding, a small smile emerging on his face. "Of course. Keniuchio's message was simple: Tomo's plan has moved ahead, we believe they plan to attack sooner than expected. Tomorrow soon."
"What're we waitin' for? Let's go." Rogue punches her fist into her other hand.
Shingen's smile grows. "Don't let me keep you waiting. Some of our guards will go with you."
We all get up from our seats and head towards the cars. On the way there I use my Thunderbird powers and listen to what Shingen says to his guards as we leave, having downloaded Japanese last night. "Send a group of guards to their rooms. Keep the three of them as hostages."
"Guys, Shingen's gonna send some guards your way to hold you hostage. Be ready." I tell the rest of the team after swapping to my Marvel Girl powers.
"You know Japanese?" Bobby asks.
"Downloaded it from one of the guards last night." I reply.
"Alright. See you guys later." Kitty says.
I end the telepathic call as we enter two different cars. Scott, Rogue, and I in one car with Logan, Jean, and Kitty in the other, four guards riding with us in each car. The car ride there is tense, doesn't help that the guards refuse to talk to us the entire ride there. And it's a looong ride. After some hours we finally make it to an abandoned facility.
Outside we see some 'injured' guards outside waiting for us. One of them walks to us once he notices us. "Problem," He breaths heavily, leaning on one of the guards who came with us. "It was an ambush. Keniuchio-sama has been taken by the enemy, along with half of us."
"Don't worry, we're here to help," Scott reassures. "What's the layout of the building?"
He pulls out his phone and sends a message to the tablet in the car. The guard helping up the injured guy pulls out the tablet and shows us the building's layout. "Jean, Logan, you'll be our vanguard. Rogue, you're with me, we'll try to apprehend Shiro as fast as possible. Kitty, Nolan, you'll work with the guards to take out Tomo's men."
"What about Yuriko?" One of the injured guards asks.
"Rogue and I'll deal with her after we help Shiro. Come on, we've wasted enough time as is." A crimson glow emerges from behind Scott's glasses.
Rocks and random debris float around Jean as she walks up to the doors, Logan crouched down with his claws out. Jean thrusts her arm forward, sending her weapons through the front doors, also sending Tomo's men flying. Logan leaps in, roaring as he does, and lands on two men, he slashes them with his claws before jumping to another group of guards.
A ball of fire flies towards Logan, seeing it coming Logan dodges out of the way. From the skies comes a person wearing a red and white suit. The bottoms are entirely red, while the top is made of red and white stripes, with a mask over the top half of his face, two fin-like protrusions on the side of the mask, the forehead has yellow lines on it.
"We knew you were coming, X-Men. My name is Shiro Yoshida, you may call me Sunfire! You will not stop me, my uncle told me the evils of the western world. I will rectify the mistakes done by your people!" Shiro, or Sunfire, announces as he fires a beam of fire at us, we scatter out of the way.
I switch to my elemental powers and fire a strong jet of water towards Sunfire. Our attacks combine and create a giant smokescreen in response. Jean creates a psychic link between us. "Now!" I shout to Scott and Rogue.
From the steam I see a concussive beam fly towards Sunfire towards the ground. Rogue takes the advantage and leaps on him; she takes off her glove and places her hand on the exposed part of his face. Well, that was quick.
"Incoming!" Logan warns us.
From a ledge drops a massive form, once the steam clears, we see Keniuchio in his Silver Samurai armor. His already massive form is made even bigger, his silver and black armor with a rising sun symbol on the front of his chest piece. He pulls his katana out, after a minute it glows with a silver energy.
We all stop fighting as our side and Silver Samurai's side stand on either side of the room, keeping a careful eye on each other. From behind Silver Samurai walks an attractive Asian woman, black pants and armor on the top. Logan and Jean stand in front of our group, Scott and a floating Rogue to one side and Kitty and I in the back.
Silver Samurai points at us with his katana. "Surrender Sunfire to us now. Or we will be forced to attack you…with lethal force."
Scott smirks as he walks alongside Kitty and I. "Whatever you say. Keniuchio."
Everyone else's eyes widen. Silver Samurai steps forward. "How." He growls.
"Is it really important?" Scott asks. Silver Samurai just growls as he gets in a fighting stance. "Guess not. We also know that this was all planned by your father and uncle, and that our 'guards' were meant to betray us."
Before the guards could turn on us Scott lowers his glasses and fires at the group, Rogue does the same with her Sunfire powers and fires at them from above. Scott, Logan, and Jean then turn towards the other group of guards, Silver Samurai, and Lady Deathstrike and fight them, Kitty, Rogue, and I deal with the left-over guards on our side.
My tattoos glow brown, I stomp on the ground, sending the remaining guards into the sky where Rogue flies by, blasting them with bursts of flame. Kitty runs into the middle of the group-using her intangibility to avoid hits-and hits back when she has the chance to, taking out two of the guards.
Shifting the ground, I lift two large rocks and morph them around my arms, creating giant gauntlets. I punch one of the guards into the distance, grab two by the head and bash them together, and grab another by the head and throw him into two others.
"Our guards are done, now what?" Rogue asks as she floats towards Kitty and me.
Looking to the rest of the team we see the number of guards dwindling, which is good. On the other hand, we notice Logan and Lady Deathstrike fighting toe to toe, and Scott and Jean struggling against Silver Samurai.
"Kitty, Rogue, help Logan deal with Deathstrike, Rogue stay in the sky. I'll help Scott and Jean." I say. I gather more rocks and create giant stone armor around me. Thanks to the fight Silver Samurai doesn't notice me running towards him, once I get close enough Jean and Scott move out of the way, confused he turns around just as I shoulder check him into the next room.
Silver Samurai kicks me off of him and slices at me, I jump backwards with each swipe, losing more and more of my armor each time. Before he could make a fourth slash a concussive blast from Cyclops sends him skidding back a few feet. As he recovered more rocks and metal fly towards him, sending him back even further.
Scott and Jean run through the hole and continue their barrage, I add by shifting the ground under Samurai, giving him almost no footing. I notice his arm quickly go to his side, he then quickly throws his arm out, throwing three glowing kunai at us. Jean and Scott roll out of the way, stopping their barrage, I quickly shift to my Wolverine powers, the kunai stabs into my chest, completely ignoring my armor.
Dammit, how am I gonna get outta this now? I can't exactly switch to back to my elemental powers due to the kunai in my chest, and I'm not strong enough to break through this. Looking through the slit I notice debris and bursts of red light followed by silver blades. Well, can't ask Scott or Jean, they're pretty busy right now. Maybe my Thor powers could come in handy, I mean, the kunai's only in my lung, so it won't be so bad, right?
It hurts, motherfucker it hurts. Even with superhuman durability having a kunai in my lung's still pretty damn painful. Gritting my teeth, I slowly get up, glaring at Samurai my eyes glow blue, I lift my arm, the rocks around it break off, and fire a lightning bolt at Samurai's back, sending him flying into Scott's beam.
Jean lifts a giant rock and drops it over Samurai's prone body. The explosion of dust causes all of us to cough, once it fades away, we stand next to each other and look at the boulder. "That…was a bitch." I gasp out.
"Agreed," Scott looks at me and points at the kunai in my chest. "Hey, Nolan, you, uh, you've got a kunai in your chest."
I look down at my chest. Huh, how'd I forget about that? Swapping to my Wolverine powers I grit as I pull it out, the wound instantly heals. Rogue flies into me, sending us both to the ground. "Hey guys, Ah see you're havin' an easier time than us." She says as she sits on my back.
"Yeah, we are. Get the hell off of me." I growl. She doesn't, so I get up, sending her tumbling to the ground. I turn around and pick her up.
"Shiro's back up, by the way. He sent me through the hole." Rogue says.
"Lovely," I drawl. "Now what?"
Jean steps forward. "I've got it," for a moment I see her telepathically do something. "Gave Shiro an info dump, he's helping us beat Lady Deathstrike."
"Dope." We go through the hole and find Deathstrike struggling against Logan, Sunfire, and Kitty. I extend my claws and leap towards her, Scott and Jean send their attacks as they do, completely overwhelming Deathstrike.
Logan and I hit her with slash after slash, I see her body quickly repair itself. Orbs of fire constantly collide with her body alongside debris from the area, a concussive beam forcing her back.
Reaching into her utility belt she grabs a small ball and throws it down, releasing a strong gas that messes with mine and Logan's senses. Once it clears, we look around to find her gone. Slowly we all exit the building, we stop in front of the cars, Shiro standing behind us, we turn around to look at him as he coughs, his mask off.
"I…I apologize for my rash actions. I was blinded by my rage and my stupidity," He bows. "Please, forgive me."
"It's no problem, same thing happened to me, no harm done." Rogue reassures.
"Guys, Bobby just called, they're at the airport." Jean tells us.
"How'd things go with Shingen?" Kitty asks.
"They'll tell us there. Come on, the sooner we get there the better." Jean enters one of the cars. We all follow suit.
The entire ride there Shiro is entirely silent.
At the airport we find Bobby, Remy, Jubilee, and surprisingly enough Mariko is with them. "Hello cousin, how are you?" She begins.
"Fine. I am fine. Why are you here? Where is your father?" Shiro places his hands on her shoulders as he asks these questions.
"I decided to help them. Father believes they've kidnapped me, you must leave soon, his men are surely on their way," She hands Logan a usb. "Thank you." She gives him a peck on the cheek before walking away.
We all stare at Logan's rigid form. "Maybe she's got some brain damage?" Bobby says. Shiro and Logan both glare at him. "Sorry! Sorry! Please forgive me!"
Logan looks to the distance. "She's right, Shingen's men are on their way. We should go now."
We all enter the Blackbird after a few minutes of getting the jet ready we lift off, continuing westward. "How'd things go for you guys?" Jubilee asks.
"Ninja guards, samurais, fire mutants, and crazy assassin ladies, I think that's a regular X-Men mission?" Kitty says, looking at me for confirmation at the last bit.
I nod. "In my short time with the team I find this to be pretty normal now. How'd things go for you?" I ask Jubilee.
"It was something. Learned about the death of Shiro's mother." Jubilee casually says.
Shiro jumps up and looks at Jubilee. "What!?"
"Yeah, you'll want to sit down for dis one," Remy cautiously says. "Your uncles Shingen and Saburo had your mom killed, all so dey could blame it on Americans to make it easier to manipulate you."
Shiro's hands light on fire, his eyes glow orange as he growls. "Next time I see them." He says the rest under his breath, but we get the gist of it.
"Wait, where was Saburo?" Rogue asks.
I blink at that. Now that I think about it, we never saw any hint of Saburo there now, did we? "He left as the 'battle' began, he's more than likely with my uncle."
"And your dad?" Kitty asks.
"He'll be fine, the two of them wouldn't dare to attack Father." Shiro sits down and sinks into his seat.
Bobby turns his seat around and stares at Shiro, the fire mutant's face quickly becomes annoyed. "What?"
"You need a codename. I mean, you've already got a suit, but you need a codename." Bobby says.
"I already have one: Sunfire." Shiro simply says.
Bobby nods in satisfaction before turning his chair around. "That's a cool name." Bobby whispers to me.
I just chuckle and shake my head as I lean my seat back. Goodbye Japan, hello Russia. See you soon, Piotr Rasputin.
Mother of God these chapters are getting longer and longer, aren't they? Sooner or later I will make 10,000-word chapters, we'll see how that goes. Speaking of 10k word chapters I'm making my DC story right now, currently I'm working on the first chapter right now; it'll take some time, but I'll post it eventually. I also plan on making a Fire Emblem fanfic, more specifically Three Houses. More on that later.
By the way, college is a bitch right now, one class in particular. We'll see how things go, but if I can't balance the two than this story will slow down sadly, but I'll stick with it, don't worry.
That's all from me. Please, leave a constructive review and remember to stay awesome! See you next week.