Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Comics and Marvel Enterprises.
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Part 2- In the Air Tonight
Location: Yokohama, Japan
Less than thirty minutes south of Tokyo sits the city of Yokohama, which is perhaps the nation's largest and most important port city, both in terms of its economic significance and in terms of its historical value. And in the area surrounding the Shin-Yokohama train station within the city, which serves as one of its two central railway hubs, sits one of Yokohama's main shopping districts. The streets here are lined and teeming with various shops and department stores, all with the purpose of serving the needs of its workers that commute to and from Tokyo, as well as to attract the assorted interests of those tourists that happened to pass through.
Which was the case when it came to a small group of young ladies, who were currently sitting and talking at a table together inside of a small Shokudo restaurant located on one of those aforementioned streets.
"It's been pretty nice getting to spend the whole day to ourselves, just walking around shopping and taking in the sights." Kitty Pryde was the first to say to her companions at their table, as she sat with her pink cropped-jacket on the back of her seat, revealing the purple long-sleeved top that she had on underneath.
"Yeah, especially the shopping part." Jubilee happily said next, as she sat with a couple of shopping bags from one of Yokohama's major department stores on the floor next to her chair, wearing her own brownish-gold jacket that she only had zipped up about halfway.
"Ah'm sure you did, since Kitty treated you to a mini-shopping spree. What brought that on anyways?" Rogue now inquired, as she sat with her dark-green leather jacket draped across her lap, and lightly tapped her finger on the table next to a disposable plastic tray in front of her. Rogue had on her hands a pair of black cotton gloves, which were slightly thicker than the nylon ones that she usually wore during most of the year.
"Because, Kitty majorly owed me." Jubilee smiled, as she looked in Kitty's direction, referring to the blue outfit that Lockheed had destroyed the day before.
Then, Jubilee turned her attention to the fourth person seated at the table with them.
"And, now that I'm finished with my fashionista-fest for the day, where're we off to next?"
"If you would like, I can take you and introduce you to Taichi. He doesn't live very far from here." Leyu Yoshida replied to Jubilee, as she had been acting as a sort of informal tour guide for Kitty, Rogue, and Jubilee by showing them around the city today.
Leyu was sitting there with the girls' wearing her own black and red mesh nylon jacket, which was cut in a tight-fitting style. Leyu had a basic red t-shirt on underneath her jacket, had on a pair of black denim pants, and a pair of black twin-buckle boots, which were eerily similar in appearance to the ones that Rogue had on. And to complete her unique look, Leyu had her shoulder-length, raven-hued hair tinted with medium-brown highlights in it.
"So, do I totally detect a romantic rendezvous in the works?" The curiously inquisitive Jubilee unabashedly asked Leyu, as she sat with her elbow up on the table and had her face resting against her palm.
"No, Taichi is just a friend." Leyu blushed and giggled in response, "We actually met last year at a race in Tokyo, and we've been sending each other e-mails ever since. We like to talk about anything that has to do with racing, and we let each other know when major races in the area are coming up. And, he's one of the few guys I know that doesn't think it's weird to hang out with a girl who's so interested in street-racing."
"Is he a racer like those other guys you were telling us about?" Rogue asked her, as Leyu had been filling the girls in about her love of street-racing, which was an extremely popular sub-culture amongst Japanese youths, much like in America.
"Yes, he belongs to a team here in Yokohama, and he drives this really nice Fairlady 300ZX. They race mostly around Yokohama and Tokyo, but sometimes they travel to other areas to race teams from other provinces as well." Leyu gladly and enthusiastically explained to them, "If we have enough time before all of you leave, perhaps I can take you out one night to watch some of the drift races that take place not too far from Agarashima. The best ones are usually out at Usui Pass and on Mount Akina, and some of those racers there are unreal. You just have to see them to believe some of the things that they can do."
"Well, we won't be going anywhere, not if we spend the rest of the day sitting in here and piggin' out." Kitty said, referring to the new local cuisines that Leyu had been introducing her, Rogue, and Jubilee to and that they had been sampling in this family-owned Shokudo restaurant, which included various dishes that consisted of tofu, curry rice, sushi, and noodles.
With Kitty's cue now given, all four girls stood up from their table, put their coats back on, and prepared to make their leave from the restaurant. Once they were back outside, Rogue looked down at her wristwatch, which she had already adjusted to the local time zone.
"Where're Remy and Peter at?" Jubilee now asked out loud, as she and the rest of the group stood on the sidewalk out in front of the restaurant.
"All Remy said to me was somethin' about needin' to go find some kinda special souvenir, and then he took off draggin' Peter along with him." Rogue responded turning her head to her left and then to her right, as she to look up and down the crowded and bustling street, but saw no sign of either Peter or Remy anywhere on it, "Ah woulda figured they'd been back long before now, since he said they'd just be gone a few minutes."
"Aannnd a whole hour and a half later…" Jubilee sarcastically remarked, as she feigned looking down at an imaginary watch on her own wrist while slowly making her comment.
"I guess you can't really blame the guys for going and getting lost somewhere. I'm sure shopping for girls' clothes was probably the last thing on either of their minds today." Kitty said in response, as she was the last to come out of the restaurant and the girls' then began to walk up the street a little, backtracking towards the rail station where they had originally arrived into the city at.
"Perhaps, they really are lost?" Leyu now interjected with her own speculation, when she took into consideration just how big of a city that Yokohama really was.
"Ah doubt it." Rogue now tersely said, as she stopped on the sidewalk and folded her arms over in front of her, while other people continued to pass by them on the semi-crowded walkway, "Remy knows his way around any big city better 'n most folks know the backa their own hand. Plus, we told them we'd meet up back here when we got through shoppin', so Ah'm sure wherever Remy's at right now, it's exactly where he wants to be."
But, just as Rogue finished her last sentence, the unexpected sensation of someone rushing up right behind her and then wrapping their arms tightly around her waist, as they forcefully pulled her back towards them, startled and caught her completely off-guard.
"Now, if you ain't speakin' de truth, Mon Ange." Rogue now heard a smoothly seductive voice whisper into her ear. And just by his brazen words, Rogue rolled her eyes as she immediately knew who these arms firmly wrapped around her body belonged to.
"You're just lucky this time the combat instincts Logan taught me didn't kick in a second sooner, else you woulda been on the receiving end of one heckuva cross-body shoulder toss." Rogue happily stated, as she cocked her head back slightly to now see Remy standing right behind her.
"Dat why you 'n de 'wild man' spent so much time trainin' together, just t'come up wit' new ways o' hurtin' moi?" Remy Lebeau smirked and humorously replied, as he continued standing behind Rogue with his arms affectionately around her waist.
"Actually, he taught all us girls' a buncha self-defense techniques, meant to drop any yahoo to their knees faster than you can blink. If, you know what Ah mean." Rogue said with a small smile now on her face, as she turned to look back over her right shoulder and saw Remy standing there with his red on black eyes carefully concealed behind a stylish pair shades, and his customary long brown trench coat tied tightly around his own waist, "So, Ah guess you'd better keep that in mind, next time you think it'll be funny to sneak up behind one of us, Sugah."
"Not anymore, least not wit'out a cup on anyways." Remy shook his head and laughed, as Rogue now gently rubbed her own gloved hands massagingly over his, his fingers still clasped together just below her naval region.
"So, did you find whatever it was you two went lookin' for?" Kitty now asked Peter, as he was the last to finally rejoin the group.
While Remy had seconds earlier stealthily took off through the throng of people on the sidewalk so that he could come up and surprise Rogue, Peter had simply continued on with his leisurely stroll alongside the curb heading towards them.
"That you will have to ask Remy, Katya. Since, I still have no idea what it is that we were looking for in the first place." Peter Rasputin replied, as he came up to Kitty wearing his traditional Russian-style winter coat, which was made of dark brown suede and had fur-trimmed lining in it. Peter then bent down a little, so that he and Kitty could exchange a very brief kiss on the lips in front of the restaurant.
"Yeah, where is this big souvenir you just had to run off and go get anyways?" Rogue now asked Remy, as she pulled away from their embrace and turned all the way around to face him.
"Never said anyt'ing 'bout it bein' big, now did I?" Remy playfully responded and pointed out to her.
"Just the same, Ah'm still curious to see exactly what it is." Rogue told him, as she now stood with her hands on her hips.
"Don't worry, all good t'ings come t'those dat wait. 'Sides, you know what they say 'bout patience, 'bout it bein' a virtue." Remy smiled and mysteriously said to Rogue, as he continued to string her along in anticipation.
"And since when do you know the first thing about virtues?" Rogue laughed and scathingly replied, as she raised an eyebrow while they continued their verbal exchange.
"Um, not that I'm not standin' here and totally enjoyin' the latest episode of your on-goin' reality-drama 'Southern couple fightin' in public', but we've got a train to catch." Jubilee said, as she was the one who, surprisingly, reminded them that they had a subway train to go catch. Jube then turned to look back at Leyu, who was standing there with them and had her cell-phone up to her ear, most likely calling her friend Taichi to see where he wanted to meet up with them at.
But, in addition to meeting Leyu's friend, these six individuals also had to hurry before it would be time for them to catch up with Scott and Alison, so that they could all head back into Tokyo for the evening's specially-planned festivities. With Jubilee's reminder, the group then began to move out and venture down the street, now on their way to the main terminal that would take them down into one of the Shin-Yokohama district's subway platforms.
But just halfway down the street from the restaurant, the group's journey abruptly stopped when they all came to a screeching halt. Or rather, when Remy suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, and caused everyone else in their party to also do the same.
"What's the matter?" Rogue now asked Remy, as the couple had been walking together hand-in-hand, when Remy's unanticipated hesitation caused her to jerk to a standstill along with him.
"I…I just got a strange feelin'. Like we was bein' watched, or somethin'." Remy now said to Rogue and the others in a very serious and uneasy tone, which was something rarely heard from him. Remy then began to look on the street all around them, and then gazed up to visually scan the rooftops of the high-rise buildings up above.
"Um, Ah think you're just bein' paranoid. Think about it, we're a buncha foreign tourists here on a busy street, Ah'm sure that more than a few casual stares should be expected." Rogue tried to reassuringly tell Remy, as she stood to his right on the sidewalk and caressingly pressed her hand up against his side. But, Rogue could also see that Remy's notion about being watched was truly troubling him, as he continued to solemnly observe his surroundings in an attempt to discover something, or someone, close by that was out of the ordinary.
"Yeah…yeah, I guess yo' right, Cheré." Remy replied in agreement, as he now turned his attention away from his intense examination of their surroundings, and back towards her.
But, Remy's statement to Rogue not withstanding, whether it was due to his mutant powers, or just because of the natural instincts that he had developed over a lifetime spent being trained by and then working for the Thieves Guild, Remy's senses were sharpened to the point where he instantly knew when a situation just didn't feel right, and when something was out of sorts. In addition, Remy's training also made it difficult for him to shake the feeling that they were being tailed by someone, and by an obvious professional at that.
But, as Remy's eerie suspicions continued to plague him internally, both he and the rest of the group in the meantime had once again started down the avenue heading towards the subway terminal. That is, until their trek was once again unexpectedly interrupted, this time when Jubilee let out an unnervingly loud shriek.
"Guys!" Jubilee ear-splittingly shouted.
"Jubes, what's wrong?" Rogue asked her friend, after hearing her outburst.
"You gotta check that out!" Jubilee animatedly told them, as she gawkingly pointed down towards the end of the block that they were all on.
As they continued forward and drew closer to the small shop that Jubilee had pointed out to them, the group soon saw what had her so keyed up. They all looked up to see a single word lit up in huge neon lettering right above the store's huge front window of, which said it all.
"Condomporium." Leyu articulated out loud for them, as she had finished her conversation with Taichi by this point. But for the life of her, Leyu couldn't understand why Jubilee would be so excited just to see a store that sold male contraceptives.
"Definitely can't remember seein' nothin' like dis back home. Still, you can't make no mistake about where t'go, if you need t'get some of these kinda party favors." Remy was the next to remark with a slight smirk, as they all looked at the store's main front window, which had a painted cartoon logo of a dancing condom on it, which told you in no uncertain terms exactly what it was that was sold there.
"That's for sure. If my Mama was here, Ah'm sure she'd probably be droppin' dead of embarrassment right about now." Rogue also remarked, as she took out a small digital camera from her purse, which she had been using to snap photos of the local sights so that she could show them to the other students back home in Westchester.
After Rogue took a couple of pictures of the condom store, and of a few other local buildings close by, the group then continued on their way.
All, except for Kitty.
As everyone else moved on, unnoticed to them Kitty remained standing there, as she stared up at the store's front window very seriously, doing so in an almost contemplative fashion.
"Katya, is everything okay?" Peter now asked Kitty, as the massively towering young man had come back up the sidewalk for his comparatively diminutive girlfriend, after he had taken a few steps with the others and then quickly realized that she wasn't with them.
"Yeah, I just got lost in a train of thought there for a minute." Kitty replied, as she looked up and flashed Peter, with what in all honesty was, a somewhat uneasy smile on her face.
Kitty then placed her hand into Peter's much larger one, and the two rushed along the sidewalk together to catch up with the others, who were already a number of yards ahead of them.
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In the Minato Mirai 21 harbor district of Yokohama sits the magnificently prominent skyscraper known as the Yokohama Landmark Tower. At over 70 stories in height, the Tower maintains the distinction of being one of the tallest buildings in all of Japan. And for the visitors who dared to travel up to the Landmark Tower's indoor observation-platform on its 69th floor, doing so via the world's fastest elevator, they were treated to a panoramic, 360-degree birdseye view of Yokohama Bay, all of Yokohama city, and to outlying areas beyond.
"Everything looks pretty amazing from up here, doesn't it? Scott Summers commented, as he looked out across the city and past Yokohama Bay, where out on the horizon a fairly visibleMount Fuji could still be seen, although its summit remained obscured in a small blanket clouds.
"It's just as breath-taking now as it was last time I saw it." Alison Blaire replied, as she and Scott stood up against the railing of the beautiful indoor 'Sky Garden' observation deck, the couple looking out together onto the huge earthen mound far off in the distance.
"Last time?" Scott now inquired of Alison, as he turned to his left and took in the sight of the stunningly buxom-blonde standing there at his side.
Visually inspecting her Scott looked at Alison, who was dressed in a brown leather jacket with a shortened waist, wearing it over a slightly revealing Athena-cut sports top in a medium-blue and yellow paisley-print, accessorized with form-fitting blue pants that managed to carefully cling to her every curve.
"Yeah, I have been to Japan before." Ali replied to Scott's question, as she looked up into his eyes, which were always mysteriously shrouded behind ruby-red lenses, "The first time, I was here a couple of years ago and I played a sold out Tokyo Dome. And on my last world tour, I toured throughout the country and performed at the Osaka Dome, here at Yokohama International Stadium, and I finally got to play the Budokan too."
"My mistake. I forgot about how you used to really get around." Scott humorously said to her, as he took out a map from the back pocket of his olive-colored pants and opened it. It was a map that he had purchased earlier in the day, when he and Alison had been passing the day by milling through the spacious and sprawling shopping center located in the Landmark Tower's lower-levels.
"Used to? Hanging out with you X-Men, I'm still getting around pretty good these days." Alison smiled and replied, since she and Scott were more or less off by themselves on the observation deck, and out of earshot from any of the other tourists in the Sky Garden area, "Not that I mind, of course. Especially, since I don't think I could sell out a sandbox considering my career's pretty much dead and buried now."
Alison was referring to the much-publicized fall out, which occurred following the revelation a few months ago that she was, in fact, a mutant. It had been a secret that Alison had struggled to hide from the rest of the world ever since she was a teenager, and once that information was finally disclosed to the public, she watched as her worst fears came true. Many of Alison's fans immediately and angrily turned against her, and her own record label promptly dumped her in the ensuing media melee. And she wound up becoming the latest target of anti-mutant hate groups, who were determined not to let her music 'corrupt' their children, accusing that her songs were fraught full of hidden pro-mutant propaganda.
As Alison thought about this and the other recent changes in her life, which included her having fortuitously met the X-Men at a time when she was probably at the lowest point in her life, and her now blossoming romance with Scott, she did so while gazing out onto Yokohama's bustling city and harbor-port below.
"You said you played at Yokohama International Stadium, right?" Scott now asked Alison after a few moments of silence between them, as he looked down at the map in his hands.
"Uh-huh." Alison replied in a somewhat detached tone, as she was still caught up in her own private musings, while she stared out of the huge observation window in front of them.
"Well, I've been looking on this map, but I don't see it anywhere." Scott told her, as he had been scanning the map thoroughly.
"You can't miss it, it's that huge arena right over there." Ali said, as she pointed out through the window across the city towards a sizable structure due north of them, "It's not too far from where we arrived and left the kids' to shop."
Then, Alison came over and put her right hand on the sleeve of Scott's dark-brown bomber jacket, as she leaned over in front of him and looked down at the map with him.
"See, here it is. Except, now it's called Nissan Stadium." Alison further clarified for Scott, as she stood very close and found the structure on the map for him.
"Oh, I see it now." Scott told her, as he turned his attention away from the map and held it down at his side, choosing instead to focus on Alison's almost crystal-blue eyes that were now looking up at him.
"Wonder what you'd do, if you didn't have me to help you out with the little things in life, 'Leader-Man'?" Alison cheerfully and playfully queried Scott, as she moved her right hand down the sleeve of his jacket, interlacing her fingers over, and then in between his, before she looked up and beamed a smile up at Scott that could have easily lit up the entire observation room, and done so without any aid from her own illuminating mutant abilities.
"Well, I'm not ready to find that out just yet." Scott replied, as he put his other arm around Alison's waist, and the two were then quickly immersed in a deep and passionate kiss. Scott and Alison's amorous display lasted for a few moments, before the couple turned back to look out onto the city for awhile longer, their hands still tenderly clasped together.
After another half-hour had passed, Scott and Alison took notice of the afternoon hour and decided it was time to leave the Landmark Tower. They wanted to tour some more of the Minato Mirai district, before it would be time for them to leave for Tokyo. But, as they were preparing to leave the Sky Garden observation deck, Scott and Alison were surprised when a small group of teenaged Japanese girls', who had been silently observing the couple from afar, now stopped them just as they were about to walk through the exit that led to the elevator area.
"(You are Alison Blaire?)" One of the girls in the group asked her in Japanese, as she was volunteered by the other six girls' to inquire. The other girls' were standing in an informal semi-circle around Scott and Alison, with a few of them bashfully giggling.
These girls were all dressed in seifukus, which were the customary sailor-styled uniform worn by most school-aged girls in Japan. Each of their outfits consisted of a navy-blue middy blouse and skirt outfit, with a pair of knee-high white socks and white sneakers or black loafers.
"Yeah." Alison nodded her head in confirmation and apprehensively replied, since she only knew a little bit of Japanese and just did manage to recognize the girl saying her name.
And, given how the merest mention of her name had seemed to spark such intense public outrage and hostility towards her back home in recent months, Alison was understandably leery of why someone, who obviously recognized who she was, would even bother to approach her.
"(Would you mind posing for a picture with us?)" Another one of the girls' smiled and further asked Alison, as she held a digital camera up in her hands and gestured to Alison with it.
As an active X-Man, Scott had the benefit of receiving crash-courses in foreign languages from Professor Xavier, and instantly understood what the girls' were requesting. They went on to explain to Scott that Alison was one of their favorite American singers, and that they were in Yokohama for a one-day fieldtrip excursion with their school. So, they wanted to have a photo as a keepsake of their trip, and to prove to the other students from their school that they really had seen Alison here.
Once Scott finished translating things for Alison, she immediately and graciously agreed to pose for the snapshot with them. As the student who was holding the camera handed it over to another man to take the picture for them, a man who himself was also a tourist from Kyoto, Alison reached over to pull Scott to her side.
"Say cheese." Alison turned and said to Scott, as he had been unexpectedly inserted into this photo-op.
"You're the celebrity, not me. I really don't think these girls' are interested in taking my picture." Scott remarked to her, as Alison hooked her left arm through his.
"Well, since you're the one who convinced me that I didn't need to wear a disguise in public anymore, back on that day when we went car-shopping, then you might as well get used to the idea of having your profile captured on film with your girlfriend too." Alison good-naturedly ribbed Scott, as she smiled and turned back to face her photographer.
Alison then lightly placed her right hand up on the shoulder of one of the girls' standing in front of her, the one who had come up and asked her for the photo in the first place, right before the flash of the camera went off.
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Location: Tokyo, Japan- Meguro District
On the top floor of the Omonaru high-rise building in this middle-upper class section of downtown Tokyo, sits the penthouse suite belonging to the Clan Yashida. More specifically, it is the penthouse belonging to Lady Mariko Yashida, and as the Head of the Clan it is where stays whenever she's in town. And, as her official consort and now soon-to-be husband, it was also the Tokyo residence of Logan, where he and Kurt Wagner currently found themselves.
Logan was at the moment sitting in the spacious living room of the penthouse watching its enormous wide-screen television, as he had been awaiting his friend's return to the room. Kurt had a short time prior told Logan that there was something that he had brought along on his trip and now wanted to show him, right before the blue-skinned mutant disappeared in a cloud of smoke that teleported him to his guest room on that same floor.
"Kurt, what the hell are ya doin' back there?" Logan said aloud, as the man not very well-known for his patience, was growing more and more curious by the minute about whatever it was that Kurt had gone to get.
"I will be right there. I just wanted to make sure that everything was in place, before I made my new debut for you." Kurt replied, as Logan heard him walking back into the living room, "So tell me, how do you like my new look?"
But, while he had heard Kurt's heavily-accented German voice announcing his return, upon first sight the man now standing before Logan certainly didn't look like Kurt, at least not the one that he was used to seeing.
"You like fine. But, you got me wonderin' how you snuck somebody from one o' those TV makeover shows in here without my senses pickin' up on it?" Logan replied, as he stood up from the sofa that he was seated in and walked over towards Kurt.
Kurt was standing in there at the top of three-step staircase, which encompassed the entire living room perimeter and descended down into its center. Gone now were his distinguishingly unique midnight-blue colored skin, blue hair, yellow eyes, prehensile tail, and demon-like features. In there place was an unfamiliar man now before Logan, who had jet-black hair, dark-colored eyes and a much fairer complexion.
"As good as those people on television may be, I doubt that even they could work a miracle like this." Kurt chuckled and jovially remarked, as he walked down to join Logan once again on the sofa.
"What then, all that prayin' you been doin' finally payoff?" A curiously-confused Logan smirked and markedly inquired.
"No, it is all thanks to this small device." Kurt replied, as he pressed a small button on the side of his wrist-watch, causing his appearance to revert from its holographically-altered state back to normal, "Hank sent it to me from Muir Island a few months. He says that it is called an image-inducer, something that he apparently obtained from the friend of a friend. Today is the first time that I've actually used it, and it took me a number of minutes fiddling with the settings in the guest room before I figured out how to get it to work properly."
"You mean Beast didn't send you any instructions on how to use the damned thing?" Logan asked him.
"He did. But, since I was without a dictionary handy, I thought that I would probably figure it out faster on my own, rather than spending the rest of the day trying to decipher Herr Hank's fairly detailed directions." Kurt joked, referring to Dr. Henry McCoy's habit of sometimes being unintentionally verbose and wordy in his conversations, and in his written correspondences.
"So, you mentioned you had this doo-hickey for a few months, and you're just now tryin' it out? You coulda been usin' it all this time and livin' it up, since you wouldn't stand out as much." Logan now commented, as he picked up a glass from a small coffee table in front of them, which had a caramel-colored liquid in it, and then proceeded to take a sip.
"And what, pass myself off as something that I am not?" Kurt replied, as he looked over at Logan with his now yellow-hued pupils, his generally humorous demeanor now turning much more serious.
"I was just sayin' you could go out and experience life like the rest of us, and not have to have to deal with the stares or bein' hassled by folks that're afraid of you just because you look different." Logan clarified.
"I've said the same thing to myself, every time that I've picked this image-inducer up and tried to find a reason to justify my using it. But, I keep being reminded of something that was said to me once." Kurt told him, as he hadn't told anyone about him having even received the image-inducer, not even Professor Xavier.
"And what's that?" Logan asked.
"That I shouldn't have to." Kurt told Logan, as he repeated the poignant statement made to him over a year ago in the woods not too far from Xavier's School in Westchester, a statement made to him by a woman who, because of her own mutant abilities, knew better than anyone what it was like to be able to change her own appearance and blend in with the crowd, "And the more that I thought about it, it did make a great deal of sense. After all, isn't that why Professor Xavier started his school in the first place, for his students and X-Men to help be the ones instrumental in building a world where mutants, where people like us, would be accepted as we are and for who and what we are? Using this device would seem almost hypocritical in that context, and I feel slightly embarrassed sometimes for even considering it."
"I get your point, Elf." Logan responded, as he sat the glass back down on the short rectangular table in front of them, "But, we don't live in Chuck's ideal world, at least not yet. And, you shouldn't be sittin' around feelin' guilty about wantin' to have a semblance of a normal life in this one we do have to live in. Hell, that's somethin' we all want a little of, even a guy like me."
After hearing Logan's statement, Kurt sat there crouched on the sofa in reflective silence for a moment, before speaking again.
"Profound words, Mein Freunde. And, coming from a man who is on the verge of settling down himself, which is a good sign I imagine." Kurt remarked, as a smile now returned to his face.
"Gettin' married is one thing, but I don't know about how settled or tame I'll ever get." Logan laughed in response, "Still, I don't think I can begin to imagine life now without havin' Mariko in it with me."
"Speaking of which, you could have gone with others. You did not have to stay behind here just to keep me company." Kurt told Logan.
"Nah, it's alright, I wasn't much up for goin' sight-seein' with Scott, Ali, and the kids. And M'iko 'n 'Ro certainly didn't need my help in makin' sure everything was ready for the party tonight. Plus, it gave us a chance to talk, just the two of us like we used to do back home." Logan told Kurt, as he stood up from the sofa with a now empty glass in his hand, "I'm gonna go pour myself another glass o' sake, you wanna try a shot?"
After sitting there silently again in a moment of internal debate, Kurt finally gave Logan an answer.
"I suppose one won't hurt. But, only one." Kurt acquiesced, as he wasn't the type to drink alcohol very often. And certainly not as much as Logan, whose mutant healing factor allowed him to imbibe as much alcohol as he wanted with virtually no ill or after-effects.
"Alright, I'll just make yours a double then." Logan smirked, as he walked from the sofa and headed towards the penthouse's kitchen to obtain another glass of sake, which was now one of his favorite alcoholic drinks.
With beer still remaining number one, of course.
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Later that evening, the gang that had been touring through Yokohama finally returned to Mariko's Tokyo Penthouse. They all immediately made their way inside and quickly changed into their semi-formal attire for the evening. While the girls put on fashionably-hot party and cocktail dresses, which came in widely varying styles and lengths in a multitude of different colors, the guys decked themselves out in casually-looking suits and ties.
Soon, Scott, Alison, Jubilee, Rogue, Leyu, Kitty, Remy, and Peter were making their way down to the building's parking garage, where one of Mariko's private limos was ready to usher them on. The limo took them over to the high-rise private nightclub located in the Ginza District overlooking the city where Logan, Mariko, Ororo, Kurt and most of the couple's other guests were awaiting their arrival at this pre-wedding celebration, with the festivities having already gotten underway in the meantime.
"And, here I was thinkin' that we'd already been to the social event of the year, when we got invited to that big blowout at the Hellfire Club?" Jubilee remarked, as she and the others now walked into this upscale nightclub up on the twentieth-floor and saw that there were a number of important-looking people in there, some of whom appeared to be individuals of notable social standing, government officials, and possibly other dignitaries within Japan and from abroad.
"Yeah, well at least the atmosphere in this place doesn't automatically give you that stuffy and stuck-up vibe like we got back there." Kitty commented next, as she and Peter walked in behind Jubilee.
As the others filed in behind Jubilee, Kitty, and Peter, they were all immediately spotted by Logan, who came up to them dressed in a brown-colored suit, a dress-shirt that was in a burnt-orange color, and a matching brown tie to finish off his look.
"Ah thought you would've gone and traded that thing in by now?" Rogue said, as she came up and commented on Logan's outfit for the evening.
"Why, it's still a good suit? Plus, I figured you'd get a kick outta seein' your fashion-coordinating handiwork again, seein' as how it brought me so much good luck last time I had it on." Logan replied, referring to the fact that Rogue had picked out this very outfit for Logan when they were in Japan previously. It was right before Logan and Mariko went out on their first date together, and for these two reasons, it held special sentimental value for him.
But, as everyone took in the sight of Logan actually in a suit, that was nowhere near as shocking as what they were about to see next.
"Well, Ah'll be. Guys, take a gander over there." Rogue now said, as she looked past Logan and pointed out Ororo to the others, when she saw her approaching them.
But, it was very apparent that Ororo certainly wasn't alone this evening.
Ororo walked towards them arm-in-arm with someone, who appeared to be her date for the evening, and a handsome one at that. But, even more surprising than that, was the strikingly noticeable change in Ororo's appearance.
Gone were her long white tresses, which until recently had run down well past Ororo's shoulders. They were now replaced by hair that was of a much shorter length, and that also had ebony-shaded highlights interspersed evenly and fully within her naturally ivory-colored locks. This new style had been created earlier in the day by Mariko's own personal hair-stylist, after Ororo had mentioned and then thoroughly discussed making these radical changes with him.
"So, I wonder what Forge'll do when he finds out you came all the way over here, and got all dolled up to start running around with a brand new guy?" Jubilee teasingly said, as she walked closer to Ororo and the unfamiliar gentleman at her side, "That is, unless you're ready to name a price that's right enough to keep us all quiet?"
"If he is as truly as smart as his reputation would have us to believe, then perhaps Forge will learn in the future to accept any and all invitations to accompany such a ravishing creature abroad, and not to allow her out of his sight for even an instant unescorted." The man at Ororo's side smiled and wittily said in response, "That is, unless his intention is to invite another to steal her away from him."
Once they heard the man's distinctive voice, the entire group knew immediately that this person before them standing right next to Ororo was no stranger at all.
"Kurt…is that really you?" Alison now asked in an astonished tone, as she left Scott's side and came over to visually inspect him.
"Guilty as charged." Kurt chuckled, as he stood there with his appearance completely altered and was dressed in a holographically-induced black and white-pinstriped suit, complete with bowtie and a white formal-scarf draped across his shoulders around his neck. And where upon a closer look, Alison did recognize a few of Kurt's characteristic facial features beneath this elaborate disguise of his.
"Kurt, how'd you manage to pull this off?" Scott now also came up and curiously asked, as he was once again beside Alison and was just as unsure as the others about what feats of magic Kurt was working with.
"I will explain the details to you later." Kurt laughed and told Scott.
"Looks like both you and Kurt've been pretty busy today wit' de new looks eh, Stormy?" Remy now remarked, as he walked up and took in the sight of Ororo's new hairstyle and the low-cut shimmering silver sequined-gown that she had on. Remy was referring to Ororo's own fairly drastic change in appearance, even though it still wasn't anywhere as extreme of a makeover as was Kurt's.
"Yeah, what's with the new 'do anyways?" Jubilee also questioningly posed to Ororo.
"It is something that I have been considering for a few months, and I felt that now was the right time to make such a change." Ororo told them, as she looked at Jubilee and Remy, and then over at Kitty next to Peter, "I take it that you do not like it?"
"No, it's not that. I mean, I think it looks totally awesome, and you definitely know how to rock it." Jubilee replied, as she scrutinized Ororo's hair styling.
"I guess it'll just take us a little while for us to get used to it, that's all." Kitty added, as she also visually appraised it.
Just then, Mariko was at last able to make her way over to join her fiancé and their friends, after having just greeted the Japanese Finance Minister and his wife and politely thanked them for their attendance this evening.
"I have a table set aside for all of you, if you would just follow me." Mariko said to her newly-arrived guests', as she came up and stood next to Logan. Mariko was dressed this evening in an exquisitely conservative black satin skirt-suit, which had four gold rhinestone buttons on the front of its jacket.
"We will, but first someone here has a gift that they would like to give to the happy couple." Ororo now revealed to Mariko and Logan, while with a gesture from her hand she directed Peter over to an area behind one of the bars in the club.
"I had originally planned to give this to you following your wedding the day after tomorrow, but the others said that I should instead surprise you with it tonight." Peter said, as he carried a rectangular object wrapped in a linen sheet over to Logan and Mariko.
Peter then handed the shrouded gift to Logan, who removed the cloth sheet so that he and Mariko could take a look at what exactly this gift was. Having known Peter long enough to know that painting and sketching was his favorite leisure time activity, and having also personally seen some of Peter's works, Logan knew almost immediately what was underneath the cloth-covered item in his hands. While Logan was fully prepared to see some manner of illustrated nature scene on the stretched canvas, both he and Mariko were both nonetheless left speechless by the image now before them.
The portrait was one of both Logan and Mariko, showing them on the day when they first met at the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo. It was back in the spring during the traditional season of Ohanami, the time of year when the cherry blossoms were plentiful and visible everywhere there.
In Peter's depiction, it showed the newly introduced couple facing each other and grasping one another by both hands, while gazing into each other's eyes with the Kokyo Higashi Gyoen section of the Imperial Gardens sitting directly behind them. And faded into the background all around them, Peter had visual representations of those very cherry blossoms that had brought them there in the first place.
"Pete…this is incredible." Logan managed to get out, as the man who rarely showed this kind of emotion publicly was genuinely choked up by the painting in his hands, "But, how in the world did you know about this anyways?"
"That would be me." Rogue stepped forward and happily acknowledged, "After Ah got your wedding invitation, Ah went and took some of the photos Ah had snapped over here and showed 'em to Peter. He told me it'd be no problem for him to make a portrait from them, but even Ah was surprised at how good it came out. Although, Ah guess Ah shouldn't have been, considerin' Peter is the school's artist-extraordinaire."
"That he is." Logan replied, as he handed the painting over to Mariko, and walked over towards Peter to shake his hand. But just as Peter was about return his mentor's handshake, Logan unexpectedly put his other arm around the larger Russian and pulled him into a very brief appreciatory hug.
While most of the time Peter was a man of a few words, just judging by the reaction that his artwork was able to evoke in Logan, it was further proof that a picture was truly worth a thousand words and that Peter's was a language that spoke volumes.
"Alright, enough o' this mushy crap, let's go start this party off right." Logan now told the group, as he released Peter and turned back around to motion for them all to go to their table. But while they all proceeded through the sizable crowd of people gathered in the club, Remy caught Rogue by the arm and gestured for her to wait for just a moment.
"What's up?" Rogue asked Remy, after they had walked over to an unoccupied corner in the club and it was just the two of them.
"You remember dat t'ing I told you I went lookin' for earlier today?" Remy reminded her.
"Oh that. Yeah, Ah vaguely seem to remember somethin' about you go somewhere today. Ah think?" Rogue smirked and coyly replied, this time determined to use a little reverse psychology on Remy and not relay her deep interest in whatever it was that he had been searching for while they were in Yokohama.
"Well you see, I went lookin' for a weddin' present for Logan and Mariko. But after I found it, I also wound up findin' somethin' else, somethin' dat I wanted to get just for you." Remy replied, as he pulled a large, black oval-shaped box from his suit-coat pocket.
"What's this?" Rogue asked him, as Remy placed the box into her satin-gloved hand.
"Only one way you gon' find out, Cheré." Remy told her.
With that, Rogue went ahead and opened the box. She then pulled a solid silver bracelet out of it, which had a round green gemstone as its center-stone, and had two smaller and similar stones on each side of the larger one on the bracelet.
"It's beautiful. But Remy, you didn't have to go and get this for me." Rogue said, as she held the bracelet in her gloved hand and carefully inspected it.
"I know, but I wanted to. See, de guy I bought it from said dis bracelet here has a dark-jade stone in it, which is rare and hard t'find. And dat right there automatically reminded me of you. Plus, I know how much dark green is yo' favorite color too." Remy said, as he took the bracelet and put it on Rogue's wrist. Once he had closed the box-clasp on the bracelet, Remy noticed how the stone almost exactly matched the forest-green outfit that Rogue had on, a dress ensemble that covered her from neck to toe.
"If Ah could kiss you right now, well, Ah'd…you know." Rogue now smiled and told Remy.
"Remy knows, and it's de thought dat counts." Remy replied, as he gently touched Rogue's fancifully-styled hair and looked into her light-brown eyes, seeing in them just how much she wanted to physically express her feelings towards him.
Meanwhile, as Rogue stood and admired the gift on her wrist for a moment, before she and Remy went to head over to the table join the others, Logan and Mariko had momentarily gone off by themselves to find somewhere to properly put Peter's portrait on display in there.
"It is rather ironic that we met back when the cherry-blossoms were in bloom." Mariko now said to Logan, after they had propped the painting up on an empty table in the club, and were now standing back a short distance to admire it.
"What's so ironic about it?" Logan turned his head and asked her.
"I suppose that is a poor choice of words, Logan-chan. I should have said that is coincidental, if anything." Mariko continued, "When I was a little girl, my father used to always call me his little cherry blossom. Traditionally, cherry blossoms have been thought to bring good luck, and that was certainly the case when we happened to meet on that day in the Imperial Gardens."
"Couldn't agree with ya more there." Logan replied, as he took Mariko's hand into his and they took one more look at the portrait, before turning to go tend to their guests'.
Meanwhile, over at the table where a conversation of another sort had started, whose purpose was to try and get one of those individuals that had just sat down there right back up.
"C'mon Ali, you know you want to." Jubilee semi-whined, as she sat across from Alison at their large round table in the club.
"I…don't think it's such a good idea." Alison replied, as she sat between Scott and Kurt, looking as though she were anxiously contemplating something, "I just don't want to end up causing any trouble for Mariko."
"Causin' trouble how? Especially, seein' as how that's normally my department anyhow." Logan now jokingly asked, as he and Mariko had made their way back over to them, and Logan's keen hearing had picked up the tail end of their conversation.
"Jubilee saw a karaoke machine over in the corner when we were coming to sit down, and she's been pestering Alison to get up and sing a song." Kitty explained, as Rogue and Remy settled into their chairs next to her and Peter.
"I don't see what the big deal is. Didn't you used to sing for a livin' in front of crowds ten times the size of the one in here?" Logan remarked to Alison, "Don't tell me you're gettin' a case of stage-fright?"
"Well, considering how my last concert turned out, can you much blame me?" Alison told Logan, referring to the riot in New York City that erupted when she was publicly outed as a mutant, "Outside of Magneto, I'm probably the most recognizable mutant on the planet, and I just didn't want anyone getting upset that Mariko even invited me here in the first place."
"If you would like to sing a song tonight, I know that I would be more than honored." Mariko reassuringly told her, as Alison sat and thought about it for a moment.
"Go ahead 'Lightengale', get up and strut your stuff." Logan also said to her, as he folded his arms over in front of him and gave her his vote of confidence.
"Alright, I guess I can give it a shot." Alison finally agreed, as she decided that maybe it was time for her to get back on the horse, so to speak, and once again do the one thing that she loved more than anything in the world.
To sing and to perform.
But, as Alison sat her white handbag down in her seat, which happened to match the tight and short-cut dress that she had on, she felt a tug at her arm that momentarily paused her journey.
"Knock 'em dead." Scott encouragingly told Alison, as he kissed her on the cheek, before she made her way across the crowded nightclub towards the small stage set up in there.
Leyu also got up from the table and went with Alison, going over to the club's entertainment hostess for the evening and explained to her what Alison wanted to do. The hostess immediately went over to the sound system's master control board and quickly faded out the symphonic instrumental music that had been playing in the club, before turning the karaoke machine on that was routed through the master board. The hostess proceeded to cue up the song that Leyu had requested, which was by J-Pop singer Chigusa Tonami and was called Miss You Forever, a song that had gone to number one in Japan and had stayed there for three consecutive weeks.
But, Leyu had done her homework when she had learned that international singer Alison Blaire would be attending her cousin Mariko's wedding, and had recalled reading that Chigusa's song was actually a cover version in Japanese of a song that Alison had originally written and recorded almost a year ago. And given the nature of their gathering, Leyu decided that this smooth love ballad would be the perfect choice for Alison to make her performing comeback with.
As the music started, the melodic beat sparked the all-too familiar sensation of butterflies flying around in Alison's stomach. But, it wasn't because she was afraid to be up there on stage, rather, it was actually the complete opposite. The excitement of performing and entertaining, of reaching inside of herself to hit that perfect note with her voice was what drove her, and it was those feelings that Alison wanted to once again grab a hold of and never relinquish.
As she got back into her performing groove in front of Mariko's guests, Alison treated them to an impromptu light show. It was all thanks to her mutant powers absorbing the sonic waves from the music playing around her, before she converted them into beaming rays of pure light. To put it simply, Alison was absolutely dazzling them at that moment, which caught the attention of another individual, although she wasn't anywhere inside of the club with them.
While the jubilant atmosphere in the club further lent itself to the evening's celebration of a new life about to begin for the happy husband and wife-to-be, up above on an adjacent rooftop a masked figure dressed in skin-tight dark-green, yellow, and black leather garb had been carefully and efficiently positioning herself into a makeshift sniper's nest, making sure to remain completely out of sight from the revelers below and from any other potential onlookers.
And, as she raised the long-ranged and high-powered sniper's rifle in her possession, which was easily capable of throwing out .50 caliber armor-piercing rounds at an alarming velocity, the masked figure placed the rifle's bipod assembly up on the edge of the roof in front of her. Using the night-scope lens on the top of her rifle she searched through the huge panel windows of the club down below, scanning the multitude of revelers in there. With a concentrated effort, she was able to quickly locate her intended target, and now took precise aim by properly leveling the sharply triangulated tip at the end of the sniper rifle's long barrel.
Once her mark had been spotted in the crosshairs of her scope, the assassin then locked the rifle's targeting mechanism and released the bolt-latch to load a single round into the weapon's chamber. The masked blonde now steadied herself up on the rooftop, as she slowly squeezed the rifle's trigger and a wicked smile suddenly came across her face. It was all in anticipation of accomplishing the first of many tasks that had been assigned to her this evening, which had been set out for her by Madame Hydra herself.
The first of those orders had predicated that Lady Hydra put a bullet through the heart of Mariko Yashida, and that she carry out such an act of horrific violence right in front of Mariko's own fiancé…
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Next Chapter: Just for you, a view to a kill…