(( Author's Note: If you've read this book before, yes, I moved this story closer to the beginning, where it belonged. This was actually a story that was requested a few times.
So this takes place before Chapter 1 even starts. This is Sean and the egos making the first trip out to LA, before anything in HISTE has taken place. ))

Sean hesitated at the front of the building, just staring into the airport through the windows. Just behind him, he could hear Anti's static buzzing softly. They had split up for the Uber ride there, and he had made the mistake of sending Anti in Jackieboy's care. Sean couldn't be completely sure what had happened but the driver had screamed, "Never come near me again!" as he had sped off, and Jackieboy looked utterly exhausted, while Anti seemed more pissed off than usual. Jameson had been in the car with them, but was quietly taking in the majesty of the air port, seemingly not too bothered by the trip over.

"Alright." Sean nodded. "Let's do this." He turned to the group, offering them a smile. "Everyone got your passports?"

"We're not children." Anti hissed.

Marvin hesitantly rose his hand. "I don't remember where mine is."

Anti rolled his eyes. "Fuck's sake. Couldn't we have left him at home?"

Sean knew better than to ask Anti to calm down, it would only rile him up more. The glitch always took everything the wrong way. "I told you to put it somewhere safe Marvin... where would that be?"

Gasping, Marvin pulled a deck of cards out of his bag, and somehow wiggled his passport out of the pack. Dr. Schneeplestein rose an eyebrow. "I question magic, especially YOUR magic, but zat vas impressive. How did you get zat to fit in zhere?"

Marvin gave a playful wink from behind his cat mask. "A magician never tells." He teased, then grinned. "But if you really wanna know-"

"Another time Marvin." Sean cut him off. When the magician pouted, Sean sighed. "We just don't have time right now. We have a plane to catch... and we have to get through security. Everyone else has their passports?"

With a large grin, Jameson held his out to show it off and Sean gave him a nod. Dr. Schneeplestein grunted. "Yes. I have mine. Vhen are ve going inside?"

"Jackieboy?" Sean glanced at the hero who fumbled around for a moment, then sighed.

"It fell out of my pocket." The hero admitted sheepishly.

Sean frowned. "So... where is it? The Uber? At-"

"In his suit." Dr. Schneeplestein muttered. "It is an inside pocket. Vhen zings fall out, zey end up in his groin area or in one of his footsies."

Sean let out a relieved sigh, nodding his head. "That's good..." He bit his lip. "By the way... you need to lose the suit." He could see Jackieboy's eyes widen behind the mask and he frowned. "Just for the plane ride! I am already going to have to tell everyone that Jameson's a mime... and I don't know how Anti's getting through."

Jameson's mouth was open wide as he slowly shook his head. "I know!" Sean frowned. "I know you hate being called a mime, but you're too pale, even for a fucking Irishman, and you don't talk... so it works. It's just to get us to America."

"My passport says I am German." Dr. Schneeplestein muttered, looking over the fake document.

Sean slowly nodded. "Yes." When the doctor didn't say anything further, he slowly turned to Marvin. "The mask has to come off too..."

Marvin gasped, and grabbed his cat mask with his hands. "NO!" He cried.

"Just for the plane ride... please Marvin." Sean sighed.

Marvin shook his head. "This mask is who I am!"

Sean frowned. "You are Marvin the Magnificent! That mask does not define you." He promised. "It'll be in your carry on, okay?" Slowly Marvin nodded and Sean turned towards the air port. "Alright. Let's go."

Sean lead the way into the building, and quickly found the closest washroom, herding his strange group into it. "Everyone pee." He muttered. "Jackieboy, you need to change and make sure you find your passport." Sighing, he looked around at the others. "Schneep, change out of your scrubs... lab coat, mask, all of that needs to be gone." The doctor's jaw dropped as Sean turned to Marvin. "Mask in your carry on, please." He looked to Jameson, offering him a small smile. "Leave the monocle in your pocket. Do not take it out for any reason, it's too weird." Jameson pouted out his bottom lip, but nodded in understanding.

Once everyone had changed into relatively normal clothing and used the facility, Sean led them out, keeping them off to the side. "We have to split up for security. This many people with the same face is going to raise questions. Schneep, you'll go on your own... charming, and please don't make a scene. You're just a German, living in Brighton, going to visit friends in America. Jameson, you're with me. I want to be the one answering the questions that they're... definitely going to ask." He sighed. "Jackieboy-"

"No." Jackieboy whined.

"What?" Sean rose an eyebrow.

"Don't make me go with Anti." Jackieboy sighed.

The glitch rolled his eyes, his body twisting between realities. "You're lucky to even be in my presence. Don't pretend that you don't want to be around me."

"You almost got us killed in that Uber!" Jackieboy cried out.

"Shh! Shh!" Sean hushed, waving his hands. "Keep your voices down. Don't draw attention to us. Jeysus." He groaned. "Look, you're just the least likely to panic around Anti. Right?" Jackieboy sighed, shrugging as he frowned. "Thank you. So that leaves Marvin and Chase."

"Plane buddies, bro!" Chase grinned, holding up his hand for a high five. Marvin nodded, then sighed, reluctantly high-fiving the man.

Sean nodded. "Our seats are also apart from each other, so no one sees us all together and gets ideas. If anyone calls you on it, you're brothers." He pulled a stack of tickets out of his bag and sorted through them, handing them out.

"So I am on my own?" Dr. Schneeplestein tilted his head.

"Is that a problem?" Sean frowned.

Dr. Schneeplestein shrugged. "No. I vant to sleep."

Sean smiled, nodding. "Good, good. Alright, everyone split up. Please... please keep out of trouble guys." He grabbed his bag and motioned for Jameson to follow him as he made his way to one of the security lines, hoping it didn't all immediately go to shit.

Luckily after explaining that his brother Jameson was a mute by trade, who had taken a vow of silence, he managed to get Jameson through security. He nervously waited near by to make sure the others made it through. Chase and Marvin seemed to get through without question, while Schneep was pulled aside for extra questioning when a needle and a set of scalpels were found in his bag. Once he produced his doctor paperwork, he was told he would have to check the bag, and to Sean's relief, the doctor agreed, and was released. Last, but certainly not least of concern, were Anti and Jackieboy. Jackieboy of course made it through easily. Anti on the other hand, despite containing a lot of his glitches, was asked a lot of questions about his appearance, especially his neck wound, which he tried to play off as some costume make up. As he stepped through the metal detector, a static volt shot through it and the arc began to spark.

Dr. Schneeplestein cleared his throat, and called out. "Oh mine god! Zat zhing is going to catch fire and explode!" Before casually trying to disappear into a crowd. As security tried to calm the crowd, who were screaming frantic questions about the device malfunctioning, Anti slipped away with Jackieboy in the chaos, and Sean sighed, motioning for Jameson to follow him to the gate. Chase snuck a hoodie from his carry-on to Anti for him to wear so security wouldn't immediately pick him out as the horror make-up covered trouble maker, and then he returned to Marvin so too many of them wouldn't be seen together.

Sean was still fidgeting with his phone, opening and closing apps as Jameson watched him. The mute tapped his arm and gave him a small smile. He pointed to Sean, then gave a thumbs up before shrugging his shoulders with his palms up. Sean sighed. "Am I ok? I mean... yeah. I guess. I'm just nervous. A lot could still go wrong." Jameson gave him a reassuring pat on the back before glancing around to see Anti and Jackieboy leaned against a wall, with Anti keeping his head down. Chase and Marvin were seated a few rows away from them, Chase talking enthusiastically while Marvin nodded with his carry-on hugged protectively close to himself, and Dr. Schneeplestein was seated in the corner, reading a book. Jameson gave a large grin to Sean who let out a heavy sigh. "I know... it's alright so far."

When they started boarding the plane, they all kept a bit of time and distance between each other to not raise suspicion. When they were all seated on the plane, Sean let out a sigh of relief. "Alright." He smiled at Jameson. "You were right. Nothing to worry about." Jameson grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

It was about forty minutes into the flight, when Sean was contently scrolling through things on his phone, that there was an announcement over the intercom. "Hey. Uh... this is your... captain? No." Sean rose an eyebrow, glancing at Jameson as the announcement continued. "Pilot! This is your pilot speaking. It might get a bit bumpy.... turbulence! There might be some turbulence." Sean was just thinking it was a bit weird, before he heard a signature pitching giggle before the announcement ended, and his eyes widened.

"That laugh..." Sean started, Jameson tilting his head and shrugging his shoulders as he cringed. "Anti?" Jameson shrugged again, before nodding ever so slightly. "Ffffffffuck." Sean grunted, before taking a deep breath and stood. He noticed Jackieboy on his feet, and waved his hand to encourage the hero to sit, which he promptly did. Trying to keep calm, Sean slowly made his way to the front of the plane, acting like he was heading to the bathroom, then he casually knocked on the cock pit door, happy that the flight attendants were currently handing out snacks. The cock pit door slowly opened and Sean let out a sigh of relief, seeing the backs of the two pilots. "Sorry to both-"

One of the pilots turned to face him, the man's eyes were blacked out and he grinned. "Jack..."

"Anti!" Sean gasped, stepping into the cock pit and pulled the door closed. "Did... did... did you posses him?!" He half shouted, though he tried to keep his voice low.

"I wanted to fly the plane." The possessed pilot smirked, before letting out a high pitched giggle.

"N-no!" Sean pointed at him. "No! You're going to kill us all. Let go of him!" He walked forward, looking at the unconscious co-pilot and shook his head. "What did you do to him?!"

Rolling his eyes, the pilot shook his head. "Nothing. He was asleep when I got here."

Sean groaned. "Right. The pilot was just sleeping."

"Happens all the time. Look it up." The pilot muttered.

"Anti! Out!" Sean snapped.

"Fine..." Groaned the man before his body twitched a bit and collapsed into the chair. Then a body which had been laying in the corner, stood, glitching as he smirked. "Big baby."

Sean grabbed his arm, opening the door and glanced out before pushing Anti out of the cock pit. "That pilot-" He started before hearing the man groan, and then call out to his co-pilot. Pulling the door closed, Sean shook his head. "Go back to your fucking seat and behave."

Anti rolled his eyes, walking back towards his seat, and Sean shook his head, using the bathroom before heading back to his seat. Jackieboy glared at him as the glitch sat down. "Need to use the bathroom, huh?" He muttered. "Do you even have bodily functions?"

"That's a weird, and very personal question." Anti smirked, giggling as he glitched.

Jackieboy rolled his eyes. "Why do I feel like Jack's gonna blame me for this?"

Anti shrugged. "Because you were in charge of me. Do you think I can blow out the engines?"

"Are you trying to make the plane crash?" Jackieboy gasped.

A woman sitting on the other side of Jackieboy slowly sat forward. "Do I need to call a stewardess?"

Jackieboy turned to the woman with a large smile. "I'm so sorry. He... we... We have a very sick sense of humour. I'm sorry it bothered you." He turned to glare at Anti. "We'll stop."

Rolling his eyes, Anti shrugged. "Sorry puppet."

"Easy." Jackieboy sighed.

Meanwhile Marvin was trying to talk Chase out of getting a third drink, struggling to convince him that drinking at altitudes affected people differently. At least Dr. Schneeplstein was fast asleep, as he had planned.

By the time the plane landed, Marvin was tired from dealing with Chase, and Chase was recovering from his drinks. Jackieboy was absolutely exhausted from dealing with Anti, who was pretty exhausted himself from fighting with the glitch. Dr. Schneeplestein was the only well rested one, but remained as quiet as the others, unnerved by the busy airport, while Jameson followed along beside Sean happily. After somehow getting everyone through security and customs in their pairs, they all got outside to find Mark waiting for them, and Sean let out a sigh of relief. At least now he had some help from someone who understood.