“Now where we go?” Lash asked his brother as they stood in a crowded airport, looking more than just a little bit lost ever since their father and their uncle had been forced to leave them after Lord of the Rings to fly up to Montreal in order to deal with an old friend who’d gotten himself into some big time trouble.
Maybe it seemed a little bit sheltered, but the Logan Boys had never done much traveling without one of their older relatives along, and now, standing there among the throng of people surging from ticket booths to waiting areas, they felt more than just a little bit rattled.
“I think we should just go wait in the seating area until they call our flight, and then as soon as we get to Vegas, we can check into a hotel and wait to get on this cruise.” Jace told him, looking just a little green at the thought.
“You no like the ocean.” Lash pointed out.
“No, but I like our titles, so I’ll be getting on that damned boat and hope we don’t find ourselves in a titanic reenactment.” Jace commented with a groan.
“You no have worry, we be in Pacific Ocean, no Atlantic, they no have Icebergs in Pacific.” Lash reminded him.
“You know, I forgot about that,” Jace said with a little grin, looking just a little bit happier.
“Nope, no icebergs at all, just Jaws, lots and lots of Jaws. Big hungry sharks everywhere, and just in time for shark week, I love shark week.” Lash said happily. Jace let his shoulders sag and sighed.
“You just had to mention sharks, didn’t you?” Jace groaned, sinking down into the nearest chair.
“Oh come on, it be okay, we not end up in the water.” Lash told him, yanking him up from the seat and propelling him down closer to their terminal.
“How can you know that Lash, you can’t know that, dad should be here with us, or Uncle Cole, or somebody, they are sending us to die on our own, I know it.” Jace said dramatically.
“You need get grip, or drugs. You need get drugs so you no be scared to get on ship, how you wrestle if you scared?” Lash asked him.
“I’ll wrestle just fine because I will be scared to death and that will make me wrestle harder just to get the hell off that floating coffin.” Jace told him.
“You need be more confident.” Lash told him. “Mr. Batee no send us some place to drown.”
“That’s it, might as well write our obituaries on the flight. Lash, Batee hates us, he’s prolly down there in scuba gear right now, cutting a hole in the bottom of the damned ship. The only thing that would make it better is if he could somehow get our whole family, plus Chris Ross on the god damned ship. Hell, if that were the case, I’d be willing to bet he’d stand on the shore as we were sailing away and fire a damned rocket launcher on the boat just to be sure that we’d go down.” Jace ranted, panting and taking deep breaths when he was done.
“You need drink less caffeine, you too jumpy.” Lash said as he sat down beside him.
Jace scrubbed his hand down his face, especially as Lash pulled out a damned container of bubbles and a wand and began to blow them in a rapidly drifting cloud.
“Will you stop that?” Jace growled.
“No, I have to use them before we fly, if I no use, then I have to throw away, throw away be like waste.” Lash said reasonably.
“It ain’t like booze Lash, its okay to toss out some damned soapy water if you don’t get to finish using it.” Jace grumbled.
“We have time, I finish, you see.” Lash said, grinning maniacally.
To his credit, Lash did finish with his bubbles well before they were scheduled to get into the air, and once he was done, he tossed the sticky wet container in the trash and headed over to the vending machines to get a drink and a candy bar. Forty minutes later, and Jace was frantically dashing around the terminal, desperately calling for his brother. Where the HELL could Lash had vanished to, gods be damned, and what the hell was he going to tell his father if he didn’t find his kid brother.
Here, let’s try this, “hey dad, I lost your other kid!”
Yeah, like that would go over like a ton of bricks. Lash wouldn’t have been surprised if his father would have found some way to shove his hand through the phone and grab him by the throat and choke him to death from two thousand miles away.
Which was why he hadn’t taken out his cell phone and called. His cell phone, damnit, how stupid could a guy get. Jace hit the button to dial his brother’s number and stood against the wall, waiting for his brother to pick up so he could figure out where the hell his brother had gotten to.
Back at the luggage.
“Harold, is that suitcase beeping? It is, Harold, that suit case is beeping, oh my god, BOMB!!!!!” a platinum blond woman in three inch heels yelled at the top of her lungs before attempting to run as far away from the seemingly abandoned bags as possible.
Yeah, like THAT didn’t start a major amount of panic.
Once the first person started running, someone else started running too, and once there was more than one person running, then the next thing anyone knew people were running in different directions, yelling and hysterically trying to find the door while a panicked Jace just tried to find his baby brother before he ended up getting hurt. In all the mass confusion Jace found himself in the doorway to the terminal where he’d left their bags, bags that were currently being avoided like the plague by people would only seemed to point and run away.
What the hell?
Jace was so engrossed in watching them that he didn’t see his brother drift in among the residual chaos and head for the bags, until one of the officers yelled.
“FREEZE!!!!”
“DROP IT!!!”
Lash froze, eyes wide on the officers as the bag continued to beep and it was then that Jace realized he still had his phone in his hand, open and dialing. It might have actually been funny, the look on his face when it hit him just what exactly had happened here, save for the cop who had actually pulled out what looked suspiciously like a tazer and was holding it in his brother’s direction.
“But…but….it’s just a snickers bar!” Jace proclaimed as he dropped the seemingly offensive candy bar upon the floor.
Hours later, the boys were still being detained by security, and the airport was still on heightened security alert despite the fact that the suitcase has yielded only a cell phone, clothing, essentials and bubbles. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the airport terminal, a man was doing his best to get through security and finding it to be extremely difficult. Two female security officers were, at that very moment, going through the contents of his bag, one of them pulling out his boxers and unfolding them right on the conveyer belt, a line of frustrated travelers waiting in annoyance for the same fate piling up behind him.
“Find anything you like so far?” the man asked quizzically.
“Oh yeah,” one of them commented and ran the metal detecting wand down past his rear.
“I don’t wear metal there, thanks,” the man commented, rolling his eyes.
“mmm mmm mmm yummy,” the smaller of the pair whispered to the larger woman. “Almost makes up for having to do all these damned searches today.”
“You can say that again,” the larger woman whispered back.
“Hey dad?” a voice called out, from a middle school kid going in the opposite direction.
“Yeah son.” The man responded.
“Isn’t that Micheal Lennox?” the boy said pointed Lennox out.
Silence, the man seemed to be studying him.
“Yeah, I think it is.” The man said.
“Oh holy shit I want his autograph,” the boy said heading over.
“Watch your mouth son or your mother will have my head.” The man said following.
“Mr. Lennox can I have your autograph?” the kid asked.
“Oh my god Pauline he’s famous?” the smaller guard asked. “you a movie star?”
“Nope, he’s a wrestler.” The kid said.
“A…” Pauline began, then something clicked. “On the floor!” she ordered Micheal, mace in her hand.
“You got a pen?” Micheal asked the kid from the floor where he’d dropped and lay prone.
“Sure do,” the kid said, handing it to him.
Micheal signed the autograph while laying on his belly on the ground, then handed it back up to the kid.
“Thanks Mr. Lennox!” the kid said “Are they taking you to jail?”
“Son that ain’t polite,” the father said.
“I’m just asking cause if they are, this might be the last autograph he signs in a while.” The kid pointed out.
“Well hell,” the man said, passing down a sheet of paper. “Can I have one too?”
“I’m sure I won’t be going to jail, because this was such a big misunderstanding,” Lennox said as he signed the autograph and handed it back. “I have no clue what the hell is going on here.”
More security soon arrived and his bags were gone through with far more scrutiny before he was allowed to get up off the floor.
“Everything seems to be in order here,” the head of the security team proclaimed. “You’ll have to excuse the extra attention today, but the last pair of wrestlers that came through here caused a bit of a panic with a bomb scare.”
“Pair of wrestlers?” Micheal asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes sir, pair of younger ones on their way to Vegas apparently decided to have some kicks before they got there. We’re still trying to sort it all out but it’s made for a damned miserable afternoon if you ask me.” The man responded.
“I know this is a strange request, but could you describe these two wrestlers?” Lennox asked.
The guard shrugged.
“Yeah, sure you’ve likely met them anyway,” the guard said. “Pair of brothers, crimson hair, green eyes, one of um tattooed all down his arms, younger one about six feet, older one a few inches shorter. Black mesh pants, black t-shirts, black mesh sleeves, whole goth look right down to the eyeliner.”
Lennox just stands there and starts shaking his head.
“Yeah, I know them.” Lennox said. “And they weren’t trying to play any games with you. Let me take a wild guess. Cell phone stuck in a suitcase or carryon bag?”
Now the guard looked perplexed.
“Ummm yeah.” The guard said, “They left it abandoned and beeping.”
“Yeah,” Micheal commented. “Has someone actually opened the bag and found the phone?”
“Yes, now officials are upstairs trying to contact whoevers in charge of them and figure out why the hell they’d pull that kind of prank.” The guard said. “I swear, every time some wrestler comes through this airport, there’s some shit with cameras going on and all kinds of undue attention that we just don’t need. You guys seriously need to pick a different airport to pull this shit in. Did you know that yesterday, it was some crazy blue haired chick, talking to imaginary animals that weren’t there. She damned near gave one old lady a heart attack as she wandered around asking for her missing Alligator.”
Michael just groaned and shakes his head and mutters.
“Figures.”
“What was that?” the guard asked.
“Oh nothing.” Micheal said. “But I do take issue about your “character issues” with wrestlers coming through your facility.”
“Yeah, yeah, profiling, I know, that’s what this big, scarred, tattooed up wrestler complained about the other day when he and his buddy where trying to catch a plane to Canada, didn’t mean we didn’t find a ton of undeclared rum in the lawyers suitcase. Medicinal purposes my ass.” The guard complained. “ He had to go back and pay taxes on that before we let him through.”
“uh-huh” Micheal grumbled.
“Anyway, you’re free to go,” the guard said.
“Good,” Michael grumbled as he started packing his things. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to see the pair you’ve got detained.”
“Ech, okay, they ain’t going anywhere for a while.” The guard said. “I’m sure they’ll have a message or two for you to carry.”
“We’ll see,” Micheal muttered as he followed the man through twisting corridors till they finally reached the security offices where both boys sat looking miserable. When Lash saw his uncle he ran to him and hugged him tight, damned near squishing him.
“I just wanted a Snickers bar!” Lash declared.
“Uh-hu,” Michael gasped. “you can let me go now.”
Lash put him down.
“You responsible for these two?” the guard in the room asked Micheal.
“Well, that’s a funny question in itself.” Micheal began “But I am one of their guardians, yes.”
“Well they caused a hell of a panic this afternoon,” the man said.
“It was a misunderstanding Uncle Mike,” Jace began. “I was looking for Lash and when I couldn’t find him I dialed his phone and then the bag started beeping and some lady yelled it was a bomb and then there was just chaos. We didn’t abandon the bags, I just didn’t take them with me when I went looking for him.”
“Uh-huh, it’s called a lack of common sense.” Micheal told him.
“Sorry,” both said, hanging their heads.
“Yes well, we’ve issued fines to both and if you can sign these papers, you’re free to take them out of here, preferably for them not to come back.” The guard grumbled.
“Where are the papers,” Micheal said. He soon had them signed and the three of them out of the airport.
“Man, I am so glad you found us.” Jace said when they were outside.
“Sometimes you just have no idea what you’re getting yourselves into, do you boys?” Micheal asked them.
They shook their heads.
“Guess we’ll have to find another way to Vegas.” Jace said.
“ohhhh Can we have jet?” Lash asked him.
“Why the hell would I trust you two with my jet?” Micheal asked.
“How about ride in Jet, you take us there, we have go get on jet then go get on boat and go cruise shark week.” Lash said getting all wound up between happy and excitement.
“Shark week?” Micheal asked. “Would you please decipher what this boy is saying?”
“Basically, the Vegas region is putting on a PPV and we gotta defend our titles against a pair of Elvira wannabes named Raynin and Gothika who have said what amounts to fuck and all respectively gearing up for this thing. To top it all off, the PPV is on a god damned cruise ship, which Snickers boy over here happily pointed out wouldn’t sink like the titanic since we wouldn’t be in the Atlantic, but that we were gonna be in the Pacific filled with sharks, and he’s happy about that cause it’s just about shark week.” Jace translated.
“Ahh,” Micheal said in understanding at last. “I guess that makes some sort of sense. “
“So ummm, can you take us there?” Jace asked.
“So let me get this straight. Because the two who are supposed to be keeping an eye on you aren’t here, I gotta get you two to Vegas to get on this ship so you can defend your titles?”
“And party like rock stars!” Lash threw in.
“Okay, enough of that, never, ever say that again.” Jace said.
“Party.” Lash began.
“I’m warning you….” Jace told him.
“Will both of you…” Micheal began
“Like…” Lash continued.
“Lashiel…” Jace said threateningly.
“Rock Stars at Shark Week!” Lash yelled with glee.
Jace just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“He ate three snickers before he found me.” Jace said with a grumble. “My only saving grace was they weren’t skittles. Remember his seventh birthday?”
“Yeah, we just finished paying off the damages from that.” Micheal muttered, shaking his head and walking away, so the boys follow him.
“Damn,” Micheal grumbled when he saw they were still there.
“So….” Jace began.
“Please please please.” Lash said. “We gonna beat the vamp ladies and then see sharks but you got get us there, cause dad and Uncle Cole had go to old Montreal, something about a guy and a bar.”
“Least it wasn’t a guy and a horse.” Jace muttered.
“True that,” Lennox said. “I guess we’re going on a trip.”
“YEY!!!” the pair said, happily pouncing their poor long suffering uncle as the scene faded away to black.
