Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
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"Holy shit, don't even bother to knock why don't ya!"
A heartbeat away from lighting up the intruder, Jubilee remembered the fact that she was in fact naked in front of a complete stranger. Ducking down into the steamy water of the soaker tub, she had one accusing finger pointed at the matronly woman who looked like she could go a few rounds with Logan.
"You can go right ahead and point that finger somewhere else child."
"Child! Hello? You saw the goods, I clearly ain't no kid!" Jubilee spat, it irked her too much, it was all too much a reminder of just how Logan always got a rise out of her.
"Well you're nothing like the usual whore he'd bring here for company."
"Whoa, why don't you throw me a robe and then we can get into who's calling who a whore?!"
For the first time since the woman had barged in, Jubilee saw a smile crack her wizened face. Turning with all the grace of a lady who long ago gave up the battle of the bulge, she stalked off with the clattering hoof of high soled shoes that echoed through the suite. Feeling her cheeks burning out of pure indignation at being dismissed as a child, the idea of someone turning their back her was too much for Jubilee.
Feeling a bit petulant and thinking to indulge in all the childishness she had been accused of, she flicked her finger at the woman, a spark zipping through the air making a beeline for her. Her smile was short lived as she indulged in her little rebellious act, watching her paff swatted like some fly in a blur of speed she didn't think the woman could have possessed. For the first time since the door had been thrown open Jubilee thought she just might be in some kind of danger.
"Just tell me Vic sent ya, cause I still owe the last guy an ass kicking after he came busting in on me."
Her answer was given not in words, but in a dress, maybe not exactly the little red number back in Hightown, but it was all kinds of sexy, slinky and silky. David Bowie might damn well be singing about his little China girl as she took it in.
"Um, okay, so about that robe?" Jubilee asked, feeling suddenly sheepish in the presence of this domineering woman.
"I've already seen everything you have to offer, so why are you being bashful now?"
Jumping to her feet as if to prove she wasn't scared or so shy as to be hiding in a tub, Jubilee stalked after the woman and snagged a towel in passing. Drying without a care that she was there, strew out on the bed was a small assortment of things that she didn't usually associate with dressing up. Most of it looked sharp, sleek, and discrete, all held in slinky bits of silk as she inspected what had to be a set of lock picks.
"Protection, you'll need it with him if you're not just another of his one night stands."
"Huh, funny story there, protection and one night stands..." Jubilee laughed suffering a moment of dark humour, "...so, what goes where anyways?"
Again the woman smiled at her as she looked to her for guidance, and the answer was given with a set of negligee held up for inspection. Sheer and thin, it was just an accent for the dress that hung alone in the wardrobe.
"Something tells me that ain't kevlar, so what's your name grandma?" Jubilee asked in jest.
"Only my Ruth calls me grandma and gets away with it, why don't you tell me your name first before you go asking mine."
"Wow, now I'm getting manner lessons from a lady that doesn't know how to knock?"
Looking at the woman and admitting to herself that she really wouldn't want to be on her bad side, Jubilee relented and took the offered bit of negligee. For all the daytrips to spas, hair dressers, and shopping trips, never in her life had dressing for a date turned so surreal. Slipping a stocking from her calf to her thigh, a clip of a garter had it secure as she looked in the mirror.
"Jubilee, and whoa..."
Admiring herself and thinking of how hungry Victor would be eyeing her were he not away, she turned to the woman who had yet to introduce herself. The familiar way she held the wicked little blade up for inspection told of a lifetime in the same line of business as the feral Canadian who had tempted her to take a wild walk with him.
"Rose Wu, now just come here and let me take care of everything."
Her fingers were surprisingly gentle as she secreted away the dirty bag of tricks amongst the stockings and garters. The dress hid it all as it was zipped up, and all that was left were the finishing touches. With her eyes shadowed and her lips painted a bloody red that must have been a request from Victor, Jubilee looked in the mirror and hardly believed her transformation. Finally her hair was teased into a tiny bun with just a few errant locks running wild, held together with something far too decorated to have been found at any table in Lowtown.
"Chopsticks?" Jubilee asked.
"Don't' be so dismissive of them, you could kill a man twelve different ways with just chopsticks." Rose admitted in a deadly whisper, all while admiring her handiwork.
"Whoa, what about you know...just insistently telling him to back the fuck off?" Jubilee asked feeling a touch shy all of a sudden.
"I could show you five of my favourites in the time it will take you to be fashionably late."
Smiling to the older woman who she was taking a liking to, Jubilee let Victor wait just a little longer, she would be sure to make the wait worth every moment she strayed from him.
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"So just what was all that what with abductin' my travellin' companion?"
"My psychiatrist would call it a classic cry for attention, something about abandonment issues, being left for dead does that to a guy you know? I mean you don't call, you don't write, so hearing that you flew into town for what just had to be the same job I was on screamed reunion tour! Too bad you killed most of the band."
Truth was Victor had been looking at a reunion of sorts, though now somewhere a little voice was whispering a warning against wishes. Enjoying a sip of his scotch, he looked around the dining hall of the Princess Bar. Ever since Rose had taken over the joint from O'Donnell she had been making it something a bit more upscale. Having a look over the bar, a painting of the lady herself hung catching her au natural, just draped in silks that did nothing to hide her once sinful curves.
The painting was another of the old bones that made up the joint, just something of the sordid past shining through like the blood soaked wood of the bar, the fresh veneer and a coat of varnish just a spit polish on the place. He was playing his part for that much, finding something like he might once have worn to Vegas before they cleaned the city up, a three piece suit and silk scarf having him look right upstanding for all the folks enjoying their meals.
"Job went belly up, spooks double crossed me. Six figure payday my ass." Victor snorted, swallowing the last of his scotch and leaving the glass to be filled.
"Call me crazy, but you don't look like a man the spooks got the better of, trust me if there's anyone who knows what that looks it's me."
Dressed in the better part of a tux and a top hat, Wade was sounding down right lucid even if he looked damned well mad as a hatter with all that finery pulled on over his work clothes. As much as he hated to admit it, it all came back to Stryker. If there was a backstabbing son of a bitch you could learn a thing or two about a doublecross from, it was that man.
"You still talk too much, and that alway got ya into trouble. So keep it up if that's what yer after."
He let a growl find its way into the threat, there were too many dirty cops playing at being civilized amongst the diners, too many corrupt bureaucrats as if there was any other kind. They all had an ear for secrets, looking to find out just where to grab a man by and twist so he'd bend, buckle, and eventually break. The sharks had long ago caught the smell of the blood that ran down the streets of Lowtown, they followed it ashore from Buccaneer Bay, swimming through the alleys in suits with smiles of pearly white looking for prey.
A hush fell over the dining hall, the deals being brokered and threats being levelled put on hold as a flash of red distracted them. The blush on her cheeks was nothing so cheap as a dusting of pretty powder and it excited him, his little Lee looking taken aback by all the eyes on her. She walked alone among the tables, she didn't have his arm to hold tight to and show that she wasn't lost as she made her way to the bar. He joined so many others who didn't bother to hide the want in their eyes, looking on her with lecherous intent.
Throw her in a biker bar or some shitty dive where you were libel to get shanked and she would walk around like she owned the joint, but here among these men, here she looked flighty and nervous and he knew why. It was all the dishonest smiles and the costumes they wore, lying with pretty words that were just as crude as any catcall. They were dangerous all in their own right, so she kept walking to the devil she knew. He caught her before she could falter, lent her his arm to keep her from stumbling under the weighty gaze the diners.
"Keep a girl waiting why don'tcha?"
His hands trailed from her back to her sides, feeling the way she shivered under his touch, teasing the hem of her garter and tracing down the thin straps to her stockings. Rose had hidden a few secrets for him to find, running a nail across the sheath of some tiny little blade that was hidden just above the edge of the little red dress. Hooking a thumb under the hem, he enjoyed the softness of her skin, raising goose bumps as he stroked her inner thigh.
"You wanna frisk me?" Jubilee whispered for him alone, and just maybe he had Jimmy to thank for moments like this.
She knew what he could take and let loose, wild with abandon knowing she could never hurt him in away that would last. She needed that as much as he did, he could tell she had a past of hurting people, a past that made her afraid of what she could do. It was all there in that stink of shame that had clung to her back when she'd been showing off earlier. But if there was ever a teacher for how to hurt someone, it was him, and damned if the world didn't have enough people that hadn't earned their turn to be on the wrong end of suffering some hurt.
"Save it fer dessert babe, got a table fer two waiting."
The wheeling and dealing had resumed as he lead her to the reserved table, but in those eyes there were questions being asked amongst themselves, these men and women who ran Madripoor. Just like in the streets, dangerous people were trying to size up his little Lee, but if they thought they found some leverage to grab and twist then he'd prove them wrong. They'd be taking the tiger by the tail, one way or another.
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"What the hell kind a country doesn't have customs?"
"The kind that encourages smuggling as a way to stimulate the local economy, neh?"
Standing out at the edge of the runway looking at the glittering lights and the shining towers, Logan felt his ghosts howling out there in the darkness that ran from the dawn. Somewhere across the Pacific a new day raced to greet them, but the lingering dregs of night still clung to this island nation. Stars still shone, but for most the night had won out, slumbering away in their slums and shanties that lay in the shadows cast by Hightown.
LeBeau had filled them in, letting them know just the trouble they were in for all while looking to bail out one of their own. You had your Hightown and your Lowtown, and both were crooked as a dogs leg as Marie had so put it in summary, that made things easy for them. They weren't here for the dime tour or to play nice, they were here to get Jubilee back, and if that meant Logan could have a rematch with the man he knew to be his brother...well then all the better.
"So just where the hell are we gonna go lookin' for Jubilee?"
In a quiet moment on that flight across the Pacific, Marie had confessed feeling like this whole mess was her fault after letting Jubilee go on after his sorry ass. She should have known he could have taken care of himself, but she had been all twisted up herself, torn up over just who his heart really belonged to.
"There be only one place in all of Madripoor I trust to get answers, it doesn't hurt that it also be a good place to get a drink and some entertainment either." Remy replied, looking as smug as ever as he lead the way through what was passing for an airport.
Little more than a mess of asphalt, tarmac and concrete, there were a few real hangars in amongst the shacks and tents that served most of the planes. With all the hired guns around guarding one client to the next, it looked like the kind of place you were expected to take care of yourself. The control tower was the one place that looked to be neutral in it all, a bunch of boys dressed up in uniform and looking sharp.
"This place got a name?" Logan asked, eyeing up what had to be Madripoor's own boys in blue giving him the kind of once over that said he'd caught their eye in the wrong way.
"The Princess Bar."
LeBeau might damned well have just sucker punched him in the gut for how winded he felt hearing that name. Bit deep and hard by the grit and broken glass that littered the road, Logan fell to his knees and caught himself a half second from hitting the dirt like he'd been ducking for cover. And for the stink coming off him, the ol' hustler had been expecting as much. Letting Marie help him find his legs, Logan turned on the thief for answers.
"I know you as Logan, oui? You say Creed call you Jimmy, that Wolverine be a name on those tags you had on you back at Three Mile Island? I think you got another name here homme, that they call you Patch. At least that be the name of the man who bear a striking resemblance to you in the pictures I see, and until you came back into my life I couldn't believe it really be you."
"What're ya sayin'?" Marie snapped, already she was a mess of tired from flying their sorry ass's from New Orleans to right across the Pacific.
"I be saying seeing be believing, and just maybe we meet someone there that point us in the right direction. Very least it be the only place I recommend getting some shut eye at, out of all of Lowtown."
Running on fumes in more ways that one, Logan had to admit that Remy was right with a glance to Marie. He just got back into her good graces, and he wasn't about to see her go getting cranky what with the lack of shut eye.
"Lead the way LeBeau."
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