Extracurricular Activity (Part One)

Due to an 'incident', we had to head back to the airport shortly after takeoff. Thanks, Quire.

When he had telepathically un-paused everyone onboard the plane, it took five seconds for Hisako to realize something weird had happened, another five seconds to turn and see Quire sitting on the other side of me, and a concerted effort on my part to keep Hisako from subsequently blowing her lid. I literally had to hold onto her and talk her down while we were disembarking to keep her from flipping out.

By the time we got to the terminal proper however, she'd calmed down enough for me to explain what little details I had of the situation.

She was still far from pleased.

"Baka!" She shouted at me in her native tongue, something she only did when she was too mad to realize she was doing it, "Kono baka!"

She shouted a lot more than just that, but she was talking so fast I couldn't tell what she was saying. I wasn't exactly great at Japanese yet, but I'd binged more than enough subbed anime to know when someone was calling me an idiot, so I picked up that much.

"Look. Get back on the plane. You can still go home. I'll handle this," I tried to assure her as she paced back and forth, "My parents will let you stay with them until your next flight. Just tell them some X-Men stuff came up."

If she said that, they would know what she was talking about. After the thing last summer with Laura, and all of the other stories my parents been getting through the year, they'd learned that 'X-Men stuff' was a catch-all term that meant I would figure out a way to explain whatever it was later when I had the chance. If I came back from whatever it was, of course.

Not a fan of that idea whatsoever, Hisako wasn't shy about letting me know, "No way. You think I'm gonna leave you with him all by yourself?"

Pain in the ass that she could be, Hisako was loyal to a fault.

Quire, of course, had to take the chance to get in some kind of jab, "It's not like you would be any help to stop me, Ichiki."

Used to dealing with both me and Eddie at the same time when we were on one of our kicks, Hisako was easily able to tune Quire out to keep talking to me, "-Whatever he's going do to try and find-," She stopped and looked around suspiciously before deciding to forego using names, "-You-know-who, is probably going to get you killed."

It likely wouldn't be a good look if a bunch of mutants started openly talking about Magneto in an airport lobby.

"Probably," I readily agreed, "Either that, or it'll be stupid-illegal, and I'll end up taking the heat for it somehow."

Hisako gestured as though I were proving her point, "Exactly!"

"-Exactly why it shouldn't be your problem," I specified, "Look... it's not like either of us can call anybody while he's here."

"He's right here, by the way," Quire interjected.

Neither of us cared.

Hisako frowned, considering the merits of letting me leave with Quire so she could call the school, "But Cerebra can't track him as long as he's got his stupid telepathic cloak active," She said, "If I leave and call someone, I'll lose you anyway. It's not like I'll be able to tell anyone where you're going."

"Hey," Quire piped up again, annoyed at being ignored, "Are you two idiots not even going to try to hide the fact you're making plans in front of me?"

No, we weren't. While I may or may not have been a tougher nut to telepathically crack thanks to training with Miss Frost, Ruth, and the Cuckoos, Hisako was not. There wasn't much point in hiding anything she was thinking. Quire probably already knew what it was before it left her mouth. Apparently, as much as telepaths loved being know-it-alls, they hated having that fact be rendered redundant by people just spilling information.

"Better that than nobody know he's up to anything at all," I said to Hisako, "This is one of those problems we have to solve in steps as we go."

Quire scoffed, "You're talking like I'm planning some kind of international incident."

At that, the both of us slowly turned our heads to stare at him, "...Are you saying you're not?" Hisako asked, "People don't normally go looking for 'you-know-who' for nice reasons."

"Guess you'll just have to find out," Quire said cryptically before focusing on me, "You might as well let her come, Marcher. Like I said, none of it really matters."

Hisako planted her feet, firmly declaring that she would not play ball with me and simply go about her own vacation. My business was her business now, or so it seemed. Even though the Paladins were no more, squad loyalty ran deep.

I'd be a complete hypocrite if I couldn't appreciate that. Besides, being that there was a sick part of me that was curious enough to want to see just where Quire was going with this, I also couldn't fault her if there was a part of her that felt the same.

"I'm an X-Man too, Bel. Not just you," Hisako said resolutely, "We're in this together."

If there was any more fight in me against her, it evaporated there on the spot, "Right..."

In the meantime, now we needed flights to East Africa. I really had to put my dexterous use of Expedia to the test to make that happen in short order.