Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth and is used with permission. Blaze, Shockwave and Iona belong to Lamby and should not be used without my permission.
Scene 05"I can't believe you're actually reading that thing, Sam." Vertigo moaned, brushing her thick white hair as she perched on her dorm bed in her dressing gown. Shockwave was already in her own, covers tugged up to her ears, propped up somewhat uncomfortably on her elbows. The Apocalypse book lay on her pillow, and in the low light from her bedside lamp, the pages seemed to glow ever so softly.
When Sam didn't reply to Vertigo, Wolfsbane dropped to sit on the older teenager's bedside. In a hunter's reflex, the metamorph grabbed the book from right under Sam's nose and slammed it shut. The sudden noise made Iona jump. Not even supposed to be in here after curfew, she could only hope none of the X-Men came to check up on the sound's source.
"What did you do that for?" Sam accosted her friend angrily, swinging upright to grab the book and causing a frantic tug of war. Annoyed, Wolfsbane pulled back on the tome sharply, and then let go, sending Sam crashing backwards onto her bed. The book landed on the floor, spilling open to a page close to its centre. A huge maul of symbols covered both pages in blood-black script. Even as she looked at it, Wolfsbane could feel her hackles rising. She had been right, this book had some power to it.
"Keep your hairy hands off my things, Wolfie!" Sam snapped, recovering herself enough to dive for the book. But their mini-fight had unnerved the blonde, and her finger bones had begun their trademark vibrating. She touched the book before she realised, suddenly thinking 'No!' as she waited for the book to be destroyed by her mutation. But nothing happened.
"What the?" Vertigo demanded of no one in particular as Shockwave picked up the book, still using her powers. The tome remained unbroken, but as the girls watched something else started to happen. The writing began to glow over the spread of the pages. A low humming, separate from that associated with Shockwave's power, filled the air. Unbidden, the four girls gathered around the open pages in Shockwave's hands. Wolfsbane was the first to reach out, to brush the pages with her hand, but Iona and Vertigo had no second thoughts about joining her.
The door burst open, and all four girls screamed as Sam slammed the book shut. Logan stormed into the room, sniffing heavily, muscles in his arms tensed as thought any second he would unleash the fury of his claws on them. The girls stopped screaming and looked at him, shocked. Sam didn't know why, but she hid the book behind her back.
"What's goin' on?" Logan demanded, turning back to the girls after storming past them once. They just looked at him. "There's somethin' goin' on. I can feel it. What is it?"
"Wow, somebody's paranoid." Vertigo recovered herself the quickest, staring Logan down, knowing he couldn't meet her eyes for long without feeling dizzy. "There's nothing going on Wolverine. Now if you don't mind?" She indicated to the door, ushering him out of their room with both hands.
"Logan," Cyclops was stood in the doorway, carefully not putting a foot over the threshold into the girl's dorm. "What are you doing?"
"I…" Logan glanced around at all of them, confused and hating it. "Never mind."
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"Now arriving at gate seven, the delayed flight x-two-one-seven-five from Hawaii."
The nasal voice of the airport announcer rang through the sterile corridors and arcades as Gambit meandered his way lazily to the arrival lounge. They'd be ages yet, collecting their luggage and floundering their way through security. For this part of their vacation at least, it was rather them than him.
He was right, and they were ages. Leaning against a dull concrete pillar Gambit had even started to nod off in the warm stale air of the arrivals lounge. First he knew of Storm and Blaze's arrival was a familiar English voice threatening to steal the car keys and leave him sleeping.
"I'se not asleep." He protested sluggishly, peeling his eyes open, and then grinned. "What no grass skirts mes Amies?"
"Didn't think one would suit you." Storm commented lightly, returning the smile as Blaze laughed. Remy was forced to admit they looked fantastic. Even despite the delayed flight, both women were crease-free and sparkly-eyed. Storm, with her shoulder length white hair pulled back into a ponytail, looked younger and more at ease with her self than he had ever seen her. Glowing, Gambit surmised.
Blaze was tanned and radiant too, her nose and cheekbone dusted with cute freckles. Not particularly tall, the delicate fire elemental had her long mass of red curls dripping in ringlets down her back, tamed today with a small wooden clasp at the base of her neck. Her brown eyes and long eyelashes gave her the melting look of a fawn, but the wicked curve to her full rose pout suggested this fawn could pack a kick. Gambit knew better than most what a kick his former apprentice could pack.
"Make yourself useful Rem." Blaze admonished him with a hand on her hip, knee length pale blue skirts swirling. Both women wore fitted shirts tied up to show flat stomachs, proving their tan lines were minimal, though Storm had chosen soft natural cotton slacks with her sandals rather than a skirt. "Grab the luggage, Storm and I are whacked…"
"So how was Hawaii?" Gambit let a touch of jealously slip into his voice, more for effect now than anything. He could have gone, if he'd really insisted, but the price would have been one of the girls staying at home. Looking at how relaxed they both looked as he took over the luggage trolley, he was suddenly very glad he hadn't deprived one of them of that. Remy just hoped their good moods could last.
"Hot, fun, gorgeous… No, wait, that was just Storm." Blaze smiled, walking to Gambit's left as Ororo took place to the right and they headed for the car. "Hawaii was lovely though."
"Very." Storm agreed, but forever an X-Man she was already thinking about business. "Did we miss anything whilst we were gone?"
"A few scraps up in Maine, more Apocalypse fanatics, but nothin' we couldn't handle." Gambit shrugged it off as a pair of automatic doors slid open to allow them to leave the terminal building. "Professor callin' a staff meetin' when you get back…"
"A staff meeting? Not a debriefing?" Have you been having problems with the kids?" Blaze was a diligent teacher, and always concerned about the children.
"Couple of wild ones, Shockwave an' co…"
"Again?" Storm asked, shaking her head, good mood from her vacation starting to fade. "They've only just finished their last punishment. What did they do this time?"
"Went to Diego's…" Gambit shook his head as Blaze smirked. Trust Shockwave and co to pick the one bar where at least one X-Man could usually be found most nights of the week… "Xavier's not happy, an' seein' as you got a tutee each…"
"…He's not happy at us either." Storm sighed.
"Well, we're not home yet." Blaze smiled at her friends. "And we can always just say the flight was delayed some more… Anyone else want to go get a drive through? The food on the plane was inedible even in my book…"
