Chapter Three

Chapter Three

"What's the weather like in Seacouver?"  Jubilee asked Wolverine, as she was packing for their trip.

"How should I know, kid?  I've never been to Seacouver."

"Yeah, I know, but what do you think it'll be like?"

"Why?" he asked, although he was sure he knew why.

"So I know what to bring."

He sighed, and said, "It's probably not too hot, being on the ocean.  Expect lots of rain."

"Okay." She said. "That's a start."  She eyed the suitcase she had laid out on her bed.  It had a couple of tee shirts, some shorts, a couple of pairs of pants and some other odds and ends in it.  She added her gloves and made sure her visor was on her head, then closed up the suitcase.  Put on her yellow trench coat then lugged it down the hall.  Wolverine followed her with his sack of clothes swung over his shoulder, making him look like a dangerous Santa Claus.  Gambit met them at the van they were taking to the airport.

"What you make o' dis mission, hein?" He asked as he tossed his suitcase in the back of the vehicle.  He was wearing a tee shirt and jeans, not his uniform, but they were in his bag.  All the X-Men were wearing civy's and bringing their uniforms, to draw less attention.  Less attention than full uniform, but with Wolverine's hair, Gambit's eyes, and Psylocke's tattoo and hair they couldn't help but draw some attention.  

"I think there's more to this mission than the Professor is telling us.  It doesn't make sense to send us all the way across the country on a recon mission." Wolverine grumbled.

"Lighten up, Wolvie," Jubilee said, hugging his arm. "Just be happy we get to go on a vacation.  It isn't everyday we get to go all the way across the country just to look around.  I say enjoy it."

"Don't be enjoying it too much, Sugah." Rogue said, appearing in the doorway to the garage carrying her bag.  "We'ah goin' there to look out for potential dangah."  She stuffed her bag into the van along with the others, and asked, "Where's Psylocke?  Have any o' ya'll seen her?"

"Don't worry, I'm here." Psylocke said as she came in. "I was just saying goodbye to Warren."

They all got into the van, and Cyclops appeared and drove them to the airport.  All the way there Jubilee talked about how cool it was that they were actually letting her come on a mission.  Eventually they made it to the airport without killing Jubilee.  Too much enthusiasm can be rather irritating.  They drove up to the drop off zone, and Cyclops let them out.  Then they went to go get their tickets.  Regardless of the fact that no one was looking at him, Gambit kept his eyes downcast, in case someone noticed them.  Wolverine's hair and Psylocke's tattoo and hair could be explained, but his eyes were too noticeably different. 

They made it all the way to the metal detectors without a hitch, and Jubilee was busy trying to come up with a way to get Logan through, when it suddenly became his turn to go.  Wolverine walked stiffly, expecting to have to fight his way through.  When the alarms went off he froze but Jubilee was quick with the comment to the security guards. 

"My father was in a bad accident a few years ago, he's got plates and pins on his bones!" The guards waved their hand held detectors over him then frisked him.  Finally, as Logan stood staring stonily ahead and the others kept assuring the guards that really he wasn't carrying a body full of guns, they were waved on through.

            "Thanks, kid," Logan said out of the corner of his mouth to Jubilee as they hurried on.

They got all the way to the plane, and into their seats before anything else happened.  As Psylocke was sitting down in her seat, the little girl in the seat behind hers exclaimed suddenly,

"Hey, look Mommy!  That lady has purple hair!"

Rogue, who was sitting beside her, tensed up, expecting to have to fight.  But Psylocke just sat down calmly.  The little kid's mother quickly hushed her daughter, and whispered that it was rude to say things like that.  Psylocke turned to her companion and said,

"Relax, Rogue.  Nothing's going to happen.  That kind of stuff happens all the time."

"How do ya just turn a blind ear and pretend it never happens?"  She turned to her beau, who was sitting on her other side. "Any o' ya?"

"We jus' try t' not let it bother us, cher." Gambit replied.  "Dey only doin' it outta ignorance.  Dey don' know any diff'rent."

Rogue shrugged, accepting their answers.  "Ah'm jus' glad ah'm rel'tively normal lookin'."  She muttered.  If either of her neighbors heard her, they didn't let on.

Meanwhile, in the row in front of them, Logan and Jubilee were getting ready for the flight.  Or, at least Logan was.  Jubilee was bouncing around in her seat, glancing out the window, and yammering about Seacouver. 

"Hey, calm down, kid."  Logan said, putting his hand on her shoulder and forcing her down into the seat.  "We got a long flight ahead of us, we may as well just go to sleep.  It'll be over faster that way." 

"I don't want it to be over faster, this is great." Jubilee countered.  "I've never been on a plane before, and I want to see everything."

"Not much to see."  Logan grumbled. "After the first fifteen minutes, it's as boring as hell."

"I wonder if they'll have food?"  Jubilee asked no one in particular.  It seemed she hadn't heard Logan's comment.  "I wonder if they'll play a movie?"  She looked around.  There were TV screens. "They have the TV's, they should play a movie.  How long is this flight?"

Wolverine sighed.  "I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know."  He answered all three questions.  "Now, they're takin' off.  Watch out the window, and when we're off the ground, shut up and go to sleep." 

Jubilee turned away and pouted. "Well, you don't have to be so mean about it." She muttered, then realized he could hear everything.  'Oops.' She thought, but didn't do anything about it.  Logan hadn't seemed to notice, or care, after all, he was always rude to everyone.  She quickly forgot Logan's rudeness in her fascination with the sights and feelings of the take-off and flight.  She wanted to wriggle and exclaim over every pool, ant-sized car and cloud she saw but knew that Logan's patience with her had reached its end for now.

Wolverine pulled his hat down over his eyes, and tried to go to sleep, but the sound of the plane's engines echoed in his ears. 

'Damn,' he thought, 'I had forgotten why I hate planes.  Too much noise.'

He blocked it out of his consciousness by thinking of something else, and was soon asleep.