Nod. Sip coffee.
Laugh. Boy he's charming. Smile. Reach across the table. Take his hand in mine.
My gloves. Not my hands. Couldn't do that.
Not to Gambit. Shrug off those thoughts.
Look up at waitress. Tell her everything's fine.
Turn back to Gambit.
When did things become so automatic?
"What've you been up to, Remy?"
The building rises out of the rapidly thickening mists, no lights visible in the structure. As the X-Men approach it Beast tries to figure out what sort of architecture the building was designed in, but gives up after making the conclusion that it was redone too many times to tell. The group speaks little, the oppressive nature of the swamp getting to them.
"Let's just get this over with. I've got a helluva lot more better things to do than bust into creepy manor over here."
"Then stop talking and get walking, Wolverine. We're almost there, anyway."
"Yah, Gambit don' want to be stayin' in de swamp all night, neither. Straaaaaange things 'appen in de swamps at night."
"Oh?" Beast slows his pace to match Gambit's, nodding for him to continue.
"Oh, 'ell yes. Creepy noises, odd lights, locals go missin'. Is as if there be monster's 'ere. They gobble ya up when yer not lookin'."
"Monsters? As in, genetic mutations such as us? Or mythical demons, such as the Medusa or a werewolf?"
"Neider. They just evil."
Cyclops shakes his head and holds a cautionary finger to his lips before Beast can inquire further. "That's enough. Quiet now, we're getting close."
"Yeah, That's 'nuff gabbing about monsters too." Wolverine frowns and shakes his head at the pair behind, slinking up to the door of the mansion. Tapping it lightly with the back of his knuckles he waits for a response, and as expected recieves none.
"Looks like nobody be home."
Wolverine nods and extends his claws, neatly slicing off the doorknob. "But lookit that. They left the door unlocked."
Gambit laughs and pushes the door open, stepping in and looking around. The others follow, Scott Summers, the man known also as Cyclops, commenting, "If this place is really their headquarters you'd think they'd have it secured better than a simple lock in a rotted door..."
Beast nods and slips a flashlight from the napsack he's wearing, running the projected sphere of light around the room slowly. "Doesn't look like anyone's been here within the last fifty years, by my guess. But we should still be careful. Older buildings such as this usually suffer from structural instability and-"
"Beast, do me a favor and shut it, wouldja? We get it, the floor might fall through." Wolverine hisses out, ducking through a doorway into what resembles kitchen. He treads lightly into the center of the room, sniffing the air for any decidedly... foreign scents.
"Wolverine. Come here." Cyclops's voice seems dulled within the old manor, as if there's a much larger distance between the two than the twenty feet it actually is. He heads over to the ruby-visored leader, about to comment when he see's what the other three members of his team are looking at.
"Dem claw marks look like yours, Wolvie. You sure you never been here before?" Gambit's black and red eyes raise to meet Wolverine's blue.
"Not on my life."
"This, provides an interesting twist to our mission, does it not? Perhaps they belong to one of those monsters Gambit and I were discussing earlier, and that could quite possibly-"
"Beast. This isn't the time. We've got a mission to do, and this could pose a problem. Whatever cut those marks into that marble is strong enough to prevent us from getting that disk back."
"Gambit thinks we should just ignore de claw marks and get searching for any traces o' human habitation."
"Good idea. Stay together, this mission just got quite a bit more dangerous."
Everyone nodded and spread out to search the room, checking under tables and sofas and behind staircases for a secret entrance or a hidden door. It wasn't until Gambit started up the stairs that a discovery was made. Just as his right boot lowered onto the twelfth step the entire staircase seemed to open up, dropping him into a long and sloping tunnel. As the other three rush over to rescue him a sheet of solid steel seals off the trap with a quite "Vssssssht." of hydraulics.
"That, My friends, is not a good development."
Wolverine brings his claws down on the metal, but fails to do little more than dent it. Cyclops and Beast do their best as well, but there is no penetrating the steel. The trio head upstairs to look for another way in. A door at the end of one hall is slightly ajar, a faint red light coming from inside. Cyclops motions towards it with his fingers and they creep down to it. Beast pauses before kicking the door open.
Before anyone can realize what's happening a black and grey... something blurs out of the room and lunges upon the first moving thing it sees, namely Beast. From what anyone can tell it's vaugely human, but with grey stoney skin and black eyes with grey irises. One of it's arms is longer than the other, larger as well. Six silver claws suddenly burst from the creature's fingertips, swinging down in a glittering arc towards the throat of a very pinned beast.
The sound of metal striking metal is a very distinct one, and is heard now as Wolverine tackles the creature and strikes down with his own metal claws. The creature fights him off with what seems like relative ease, hurling the unfortunate canadian into one of Cyclops's optic blasts. He falls to the ground stunned as Beast stands and barrels into their assailant's back with a roar.
It falls to the ground and propels itself with the momentum given to him by Beast, leaping off the second floor balcony at the end of the hall, into the now open door beneath the stairs.
"You'd make me a liar if I said I did anyt'ing good since de X-Men disbanded."
"Ah ain't been up to much m'self... I miss those days with the X-Men, as hard as it was..."
"You know what dey say. 'You can't go 'ome again.' I guess dat's true even more for us."
Sigh, "Too true, Gambit. Too true."