"Oh stop looking so dour." Amira hissed at Vladimir. "You'd think you were at a funeral!"
"That's what it feels like." He grumbled as he sulked in a beach chair in a pair of swim trunks.
"If you ruin Naomi's day." Amira warned, waving a finger in his face. "It'll be that last thing you ever do! Get it?"
"Got it." Vlad said.
"Good." Amira said as she stretched languidly in her own chair, wearing a tank top and skirt over her own bathing suit. "What's the point of having your own personal portal maker if you don't use it to hit the beach every once in a while?"
"Yeah, I'm sure the Misfits use the Mass Device—one of the most potentially powerful devices ever built—to goof off and have fun." Vladimri said sarcastically. "Vortex is our ace in the hole, not our own personal taxi!"
"Semira is our friend, remember?" Amira reminded him. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately. I mean when was the last time all of us just sat around and watched a movie? Or had ice cream? Or spent a couple of hours talking about a class-based analysis of The Hobbit? I mean, stopping GI Joe and the Misfits is important but that's no reason to get all angsty and brooding."
"I…I don't know." Vlad groaned. "I just can't stop thinking about how to take care of those creeps. Maybe afterwards I'll be able to relax and go back to being a regular student again."
"I don't know if regular is quite the word you're looking for." Amira teased. "I know very few students who've written on and discussed—at great length—why Leon Trotsky is a better military commander than Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Galactic Empire."
"Well it all has to do with the fewer resources available to Comrade Trotsky during the Civil War as opposed to the vast resources the Empire had, and that Trotsky was successful in defeating over a dozen armies while Thrawn was defeated by the Rebels—brilliant though he was—"
"See!" Amira said, slapping her palm on her thigh. "There you go! I never thought I could actually miss having you do that, but it's a welcome change from the usual plotting and planning you've been doing."
"I haven't been that bad." Vladimir insisted. He paused. "Have I?"
"Let me put it this way." Amira said gently. "Have you ever watched that American cartoon? Pinky and the Brain?" Vladimir groaned and buried his face in his hands as if he was just diagnosed with something terminal.
"Bozhemoi…" He moaned. "I've got to get a new job. Or rather, finish off this one so I can stop running around in ridiculous uniforms! I mean I feel like I'm going into a fight wearing nothing but long-johns!"
Amira pictured the image in her mind and started giggling. The hurt look at Vladimir's face only made it funnier.
"Sorry." Amira wheezed. "But…" she cracked up again.
"Oh brother." Vlad rolled his eyes. Amira managed to calm herself down a bit.
"Why do you do it then, if you don't like it?" She asked him.
"I don't know." He frowned. "I mean I know I have a reason when I'm out there fighting, but it's like the reason just starts to slip away from me whenever I—ow!" he winced as he put a hand up to the side of his head. "I'm really starting to hate these stinking headaches! I've been having them ever since I took this job!"
"Maybe you should take some aspirin or something." Amira suggested, looking concerned. "Or go see a doctor."
"I had a complete physical right before I left the Academy, same as everybody else. I thought that psyche test Miss Frost gave me would never end!"
Amira frowned. She didn't recall getting any psychological test. "What're you—" She was interrupted when Naomi ran up to her and started tugging on her arm, speaking rapidly in Hebrew. "Slow down! What is it?" Amira asked."You want to go swimming? Okay, but stay in sight! And don't turn into a dolphin where anyone can see you." Naomi nodded as she ran off towards the water.
"It's a good thing this beach is practically empty." Vladimir noted. There hardly seemed to be anyone around.
"Wait until Labor Day. Then it'll be packed with people desperate for one last day of the beach before summer ends." Amira told him.
"Labor Day? In August? Pfeh! The only real Labor Day is May First! America's 'labor day' is just a cheap invention to keep the American workers out of step with the international working class!"
"And to think I was starting to miss this." Amira mused. "I'm going to go keep an eye on Naomi. You just stay here and…rant, I guess." She said as she got up. Vlad snorted and started rummaging around in their bag for something to eat. After pigging out on Oreos and sandwiches he decided to lay on his beach towel and work on his tan.
He sighed as he lay on his stomach. "This is nice." Vladimir thought tiredly. "I really did need a day off. I wonder why Amira dragged me here though. Why would she care if I—" Vlad never finished the thought as he had dozed off. He found himself awoken some time later when someone dumped a bucket of cold seawater on his head.
Sputtering and spitting, Vlad looked up to see a familiar looking eight-year old girl with wide green eyes trying her darndest to look innocent as she hid a plastic bucket behind her back.
"Very funny." Vladimir smiled as he sat up. "You're definitely starting to take after Amira, you know that?" Naomi giggled. "Speaking of which, where is your partner in crime?"
"Right here!" Amira laughed as she dumped a handful of sand in the back of his trunks.
"Hey!" Vlad protested as he stood up and started shaking his shorts loose. The two girls started laughing. Vladimir growled playfully. "If that's the way you want to do it…" He said threateningly as he started pushing Amira down to the water. "Let's see how you'd like to go for a swim!"
"Hey, don't you dare!" Amira warned. "Naomi, a little help?" Naomi nodded and promptly started helping Vlad push her towards the water. "Thanks a lot, traitor!" Amira said right before Vlad managed to toss her in the water.
"Turnabout's fair play." Vlad said gamely as Amira, drenched, glared evilly at him. Her skirt and tank top were plastered to her body, revealing the bathing suit she was wearing underneath.
"As you said." She grinned as she grabbed Vladimir's arm and dragged him into the water too.
"Arggh! You rat!" Vlad laughed as he pushed his hair out of his eye. Naomi splashed him. "Oh no you didn't!" He said as he splashed her back. Then Amira splashed him. Naomi splashed both of them. Soon they were all splashing each other and having a great time.
They swam, they made sandcastles, and when Naomi started tugging on their arms they started to swing her back and forth.
Watching them was another teenaged couple and a young girl. "Awww, that's really cute Sammy!" The teenaged girl said.
"Yeah, I think so too." The boy agreed. "Don't you Paige?"
"Yeah, Tabby's right, they look really happy!"
"Heck, I remember when I used to do that for you." Sam said, grinning. "Now you'd pull my arm off if I tried that."
"Sam Guthrie, are you calling me fat?" Paige demanded, looking severe. Sam held out his hands.
"No, I'm just saying you ain't a little kid anymore."
"Wouldn't know it to hear Logan talk." Paige grumbled. She got up. "I'm going to go say hi to that kid. Maybe if we're lucky they won't know we're mutants!"
"Okay, Paige." Sam said. "Have fun."
"Take your time." Tabitha grinned as she moved closer to Sam. He blushed.
"Oh brother." Paige groaned as she walked over to the girl and her—she assumed—family, who were now sitting along the shore. "Hi!" Paige said as she walked up to them. "My name's Paige. I just wanted to say hi and wanted to know if you wanted to do something. What's your name?"
Naomi started responding in Hebrew. Paige blinked. "Sorry, Naomi here doesn't speak English, only Hebrew." Amira said. "She understands it well enough though."
"Oh. Are you Israelis or something?" Paige asked Amira.
"Or something." The Palestinian girl agreed dryly, glaring at Vlad when he started snickering. "If you two want to have fun, go ahead."
"You wanna go swimming Naomi?" Paige asked. Naomi nodded eagerly. "Great! Race ya!" The two girls took off and ran into the surf.
"That's really nice of you." Tabitha said as she and Sam walked up to them. "I'm Tabitha Smith and this is my boyfriend Sam Guthrie, he's Paige's big brother."
"I'm Amira." Amira introduced herself. "And this is Vlad."
"So how long have you two been…?" Tabitha started.
"Oh us? We're not dating." Vladimir said. Tabby looked at Amira who rolled her eyes. Tabitha nodded knowingly.
"Right. My mistake. So is she your sister?"
"She's actually a ward of sorts of Amira's." Vladimir said. "I'm just the chauffeur."
"Liar." Amira said, slapping his belly. "Naomi adores him. Why I don't know, but she does."
"What brings you to the beach today?" Vladimir asked. Sam shrugged.
"Just wanted to get away from our crazy school for a couple of days, to say nothing of our classmates!"
"No need to explain." Amira sighed. "We've been there." Looking over at the girls she saw that they had started to head out of sight. "I better go reign them in a bit. Excuse me." She said as she left to corral the girls.
"I'll be right here." Vladimir said.
"You Russian?" Sam asked. "Sorry, I just noticed your accent." Vlad nodded warily.
"Da…" He wondered if perhaps he was some uber-patriotic American who was going to tell him to 'get out.' It had happened before. Sam must've seen that he'd made Vladimir nervous so he explained.
"It's just that at our school we have a Russian student with us named Peter. I think the Russian is Piotr, right?" Vlad nodded.
"It is." There was a momentary awkward pause.
"So you drove here?" Tabby asked Vladimir. "You go to school around here?"
"Not that close." Vladimir admitted. "We had to, um, take a bus. What about you?"
"Oh we had…a friend bring us here." Sam said. Looking past Vlad he said, "Here they come now! They wanted some time off too and invited us along." Vladimir turned around to see two more teenagers and a young girl heading towards them.
"Hi Sam, hi Tabby!" Althea waved. "You guys get the beach blankets and chairs all set up?"
"Everything's all set." Sam said.
"I want to go swimming!" Spyder said from between them. "Where's Paige?"
"Paige is already in the water." Tabitha told her, pointing. "She's made a friend, why don't you go introduce yourself."
"Okay." Spyder chirped as she dashed into the water. Althea snorted.
"Kids. Oh well, at least I didn't have to bring the Triplets along. They're still fixing their lab." She looked at Vladimir as if noticing him for the first time. "Oh, sorry. I'm Althea Delgado and this," she hugged Toad possessively "is my Toddles!"
"Al!" Toad moaned. "Not in public!"
"I'm Vladimir." Vlad said trying not to panic. None of them had ever seen him before. The two older Misfits had been knocked out before he revealed himself in the first battle and they hadn't encountered him personally. The girl hadn't been there at all. Vladimir knew their pictures from their files but they wouldn't know him.
Althea looked at him. "You look familiar…have we met?"
"I can't imagine where." Vladimir said, confused. Had her teammates described him to her? Althea shrugged and seemed to brush it aside.
"You want to join us?" Althea offered,
"Um…"
"No need to be shy." Sam said. "He and his—er, friend—brought a little girl with them too. She's with Paige."
"Come on, sit with us!" Tabby said as she pulled on Vladimir's arm. Before he knew what was really going on he ended up sitting down with Sam, Tabitha, Althea, and Todd.
He sat stiffly, waiting to see if it was an ambush from the Misfits. Vlad idly wondered what their relation to Tabitha and the Paiges were. But the talk largely revolved around school and movies and normal teenage stuff. The Misfits and X-Men made sure they didn't say anything to give away the fact that they were mutants and Vlad certainly didn't either.
"School can be such a drag!" Tabitha groaned. "We can barely ever even leave the Institute!"
"There are worse things." Vladimir said with a sigh. "Trust me."
"Don't get us wrong." Sam told Vladimir. "We like the Professor and our teachers, but they drive us nuts!"
"That I can relate to." Vlad agreed wearily. "My Headmistress is a real witch."
"You should see our…um, coach. He's insane!" Tabby said. "A real badger!"
"What about Beach He—ow!" Toad yelped when Althea elbowed him in the side.
Vladimir at first felt as though he should either run or simply dispatch the two Misfits then and there. But they weren't being hostile or evil. They were just…goofing off. Fighting them now would be like streaking a funeral procession. Just unthinkable.
He was a bit disconcerted when Althea would occasionally throw a look in his direction as if trying to remember where she'd seen him before. He didn't think she'd recognize him from any description her teammates may have given her. She'd be much more discreet than this and Todd wasn't giving any indication that Vladimir looked familiar at all. Strangely enough, Vlad almost thought that Althea looked familiar herself in a way he could identify. He shrugged.
Vladimir forced himself to relax a bit. There was no real danger here. Then he spied Spyder, Paige and Naomi running up to them, a worried looking Amira running after them.
"Sammy!" Paige said as she tugged on her brother's arm. "When I was swimming I accidentally used my powers and ended up sinking when I turned into metal…" Sam stiffened in shock but Paige hurried on, "But then Naomi turned into a dolphin and saved me! She's a mutant too!"
"She's a mutant?" Tabitha looked Vlad.
" 'Too?' " Vladimir asked her. "You mean—?"
"Hey, haven't I seen you someplace before?" Todd asked Amira as she caught up to them. Vlad winced. Even if they hadn't seen him, they had seen Amira. Maybe they wouldn't recognize her without a Cobra uniform…
"Hey, she's one of those Hellions working for Cobra!" Althea said.
Or not.
"Hellions?" Tabitha said.
"Cobra?" Sam asked. The four of them started glaring daggers at Vladimir and Amira.
"Oh gavno!" Vlad cursed.