xp_logs | Operation: Red Letter Day

Ororo and Jubilee find their way to Munich to search for Remy's location.

The hotel could have been a postcard - a traditional stone German home, with round topped windows and a peaked roof. The decision to book in such a touristy location was deliberate - a white haired black woman and a Chinese girl were not going to be mistaken for locals. Better to be dismissed as tourists instead, which had necessitated a bag full of the normal vacation items; cameras, travel guides, German phrase books and other minutiae.

"Well. Where do you think we should go first?" Ororo asked, thumbing through the guide book as they stood outside the hotel. She pitched her voice louder than normal, adopting a conspicuous New York accent that overlaid her usual soft tones and made her sound altogether more annoying - and more forgettable. "There's a lot of palaces in this town."

"Figure we can just start at one end of the city and work our way across," Jubilee replied, her own Californian accent more pronounceable then it had been in years. She peered across at the guide book Ororo was holding, her 'excited tourist' persona fully in place."Check out all the likely places as we go."

It was annoying to speak in code, but probably not as annoying as being caught by the bad guys before they'd found Remy. "Oh, look at this - the Stachus," Ororo said, her pronunciation purposefully terrible. "It's got a huge shopping mall, we should start there." It was also on the outskirts of the city centre; chances were that HYDRA would want to stay away from the worst of the tourists and traffic, so working from the edge of the city would hopefully yield the best - and quickest - results. "I can't wait to spend some traveller's checks."

"Dude, awesome pick," Jubilee replied, seemingly looking closer at the map and then making a calculation in her head of their supposed traveller's checks "I've heard you can totally get cheaper stuff here as well."

"Then that's definitely where we want to be. Should we take the underground? Ooh, or the trams..."

"Trams, totally trams," Jubilee drawled, making quick calculations in her head, it'd be a lot easier to get off a tram if they found something then if there were stuck on the underground. "Like, who wants to be stuck in a hole in the ground, yeah?"

"Definitely. Okay then, let's go - and don't forget the map!" Hitching her bag over her shoulder, Ororo headed off down the street, making it several meters past the hotel before stopping in her tracks and looking back at Jubilee. "Actually, I think it's this way," she said, pointing in the opposite direction. She wondered if she might be putting on the bumbling tourist persona a bit too thick, but didn't want anyone who might be watching them to accuse her of competence. "Whoops."

"You, like, have to be like the worst navigator ever," Jubilee replied, folding the map and stuffing it into her pocket before she reached for Ororo's arm and pulled her back in the other direction. "This way Columbus."

Jubilee wondered if there was anyone watching them, or if this pantomime was completely unnecessary but if Remy had taught her anything, it was to always be on her guard. She pulled Ororo along behind her, seemingly unconscious of anything but where they were going, all the while entirely conscious of every little thing around.

Falling in step with the other woman, Ororo marched off towards the trams. She had a sudden flare of anger - she would much rather have gotten her hands on their secretive contact and wrung Remy's location out of them than gallavant around the city on a wild goose chase - and the strength of the emotion shocked her. Regardless of how she felt, this was the way it was going to have to be, but as they bought their tickets and climbed aboard the first tram she gave a quick prayer that it wouldn't have to be that way for much longer. They were coming for him, and they would find him.